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That is correct; just before the dow by the austria-hungary-tag - Chapter V;
Austria-hungary-tag brutalised the bosnia-tag, left one province. Since there is no muslim with zaidi school left, as they have been all devoured by the code by then, another diplo-slot for a new vassal was open. Since it is not preferred to sky-rocket the run into saturation level in lightning speed, the tag will be kept; so, a march it is.Vassals - in the OTTOMAN EMPIRE?
Turning-off would be extremely counter-productive, because the code needs the lucky-nation-factors desperately. Even with such luck-factors, though, the fall of the code before the player is always inevitable. Always.
This is a tricky one to reply. Not fond of giving any details for what will be published next -so colloquially, not keen on spoilers, but will elaborate -vaguely- this one, as it is a bit closer than before. Jolly, jolly good. Hopefully it will not out-spoil its entire premise, but instead triggers even more questions.
Yes, certainly it is possible; but own sentiment on gameplay; that was already declared before, in a post, on a completely unrelated thread, for a completely different purpose, with a completely different format.
- 1
Book I - Chapter VIII
It has been the grey of the dusk, however the light of the sun has tried to fight it beyond the kilometres away it is emitted. It is diffused through the thick layer of the life, but from the perspective of a point afar, it can be argued it is the thinnest line ever can be. For the ones bound to the gravity of the earth’s mass, the day undergoes the sombre shades under this eternal fight. The bright skies there have been, yet those days once again have passed, and the particles fight each other too, in the clash of the temperature and pressure, condensation and evaporation, accumulation and electrification, thus overcomes the serious colour in the eyes. Before the victory can be declared between the clouds and the light, the rotation renders the outcome, and the time comes for the rays to escape in the horizon. It will get dark, and darker, and the darkest, soon. And no, just before the dawn is not the darkest moment; romanticism does not have a chance in any argument against the real.
The issue of the map was ever-there, since the beginning of the games. Be it on the board, otherwise in the digital code of the graphics, the map defines the limits of the imagination. For the games created and played directly by and in the minds of the players, those are the capacities possessed by those minds. The potential of the mind defines the objective, the action, the calculation, the joy, and of course the reason itself, as there is no external input in that regard. The last part; that is not the direction this discussion goes through. Proceed to the point.
Those minds of the players do not, cannot, and will not conflict, as the reference datum is also given by another, but of the dungeon master. Yes, in the before times, it was not the game master. Regardless whatever it is called for the director of the game, the playground is defined by the maps of the players as they can dream of, yet they are always in coordination with the dream of the director. With the minds in absolute control of the entire system, the game can proceed into any side of the spectrum.
That spectrum is the battleground of the clash, and its name is the War of the Type. Genre may fit too, style can serve a proper substitute. For the games, it can be either an arcade, otherwise it will be a simulation. The dream-force of the mind cannot be defined even a bit by such classifications, and this one makes only a crude dichotomy between its sides. There are more than what possibly can be imagined, and there will be even more, yet in the case of this game, and the question, the two options are sufficient.
The arcade game is the set of rules that requires the physical coordination of any muscle of the player. At this point, it is redundant to conflate with the sports, and that would be true. Beyond the mind, the physical constitution is a major key in the process of the equation provided by the game to be solved. Therefore, the Basketball does have infinite more chances in a comparison, when a digital game of the arcade type is brought against it. Again, the examples are numerous. But for the given one, the interaction of the centre, forwards, guards, the amount of the decisions, the required time for the strategy, and the life on the court of a basketball match far exceed any model of an arcade game that is digitally coded and played through monitors. The comparative case does not need to be so oblique; tabletop against the digital game, and then Chess, and over them Go, and any other board, will forever be victorious in comparison against any type of digital game of the arcade type ever can be. Ever. Such games may not require the physical-forces of the muscles, but they depend on the stamina of the minds, the calculation of the strategy, the patience of the players. It is therefore the digital games of the arcade types will always be shackled to that side of the spectrum, whereas Basketball, or Go, or Chess are always superior with indefinite classifications, ranging from the arcade nature of the match, to the strategy of the moment, the period, the life they simulate.
Thus enters the other side of the clash; the simulation game. And that one carries a heavy subject over itself. The concept has to be decomposed into parts, and the first one has the priority to analyse. The fire of the situation, the light of the case, the spark of the problem for this game.
A simulation, in a crude definition, is a mathematical model with certain assumptions in order to express the real-world process, but continuous over a certain period of time. A single result of a function for a unit time point is only a solution of an equation. It has to be a series-of-solutions over a time in order to be a simulation.
Core elements are already given, and the most glaring one is the assumption. The assumptions are the abstractions for the definition of the process, either to satisfy the lacking information for it, or to simplify the model to achieve a result but with a quicker, or a simpler, or a narrower approach.
The other one is the real-world process. The flow of a unit-package of fluid particles can be expressed by applying the Newton’s second law of motion, namely the conservation of momentum. Other definitions are also added in order to fulfil the required amount of equations, as the conservation of mass and energy of a fluid package moving through a definite control volume. The system achieved is named as the Navier-Stokes equations, and the solutions can reveal the dynamics of the flow. The calculation is called the direct numerical simulation. Yet, such a simulation requires enormous amounts of digital processing for the applications, therefore advanced tools are applied to decompose the system of equations into steady and random parts. Steady part of the flow does not change over time by its definition, but the random flow varies temporally. That part is called the turbulence. Modern research undergoes mathematical models for the turbulence, to achieve more accurate results for the solutions of Navier-Stokes equations to analyse the flow of a fluid.
And yet, real-world processes are not limited to the particles, but also used to define any other process. The traffic, either on rails, or in air, can be modelled in mathematical terms to provide accurate estimations rather than biased guesses. Any process; and similar to the last example given, such a modelling can be used to simulate the interactions of populations over a period of time. For example, a simulation of history, in colloquial terms.
At that point, the swords are drawn. Beyond the usual criticisms of the methodology being inapplicable for individuals, the credible argument against such an abstraction is the history itself, or rather historiography. How the history will be viewed, investigated, analysed, processed, expressed, becomes the main problem.
There comes the map.
As soon as the map is drawn, then the simulation is an observation but beyond the process. It is needless to say, as isolated simulations with shorter spans and narrower control volumes, but on the ground instead of observing beyond the skies, can very well delve into the field of artistic interpretation. When the resolution is increased, thus the observer gets closer to the individuals in the process, the amount of assumptions increase at the same time. The control volume becomes sharper in the contrast scale, yet the entire process is blurred. When the limits of the simulation are overcome, the artistic interpretation can reach beyond the horizons of the imagination. Yet, the direction has to be clear, otherwise the implausible will override the intention, and the result is spoilt.
Now, back to the decomposed concept, and the case at the hand. The game aspect is added to the simulation, with the map is drawn over the control volume. This game, together with her cousins, has no match against them in terms of the resolution they provide as the map. No other game there is, giving the scope of the map this game has. The global projection for this game; and for the case of crusader kings, a certain part of the world considered to be fitting her theme; they are without a rival, and they are beautiful.
They simulate the history over a certain period of time for a large number of entities, and the resolution of the map is a higher representation than any other in the genre. And what genre it is, the question of yours has the interest in it.
However not exactly precise in terms of the waypoints it represents, this game is superior in accuracy for the real world topography compared to any other in the genre. This game and her cousins are of course more accurate in terms of the topographical resolution for the simulated elements on the map than the similar ones. c&c-starcraft-aoe, and before them herzog zwei and dune2; yet these can be only considered as tactical strategy, and calling them any type of strategy would still be a forced attempt to compliment such arcade games. Their precision of the tactical field they depend on is unmatched, however they do not possess any large-scale map to be compared for any accuracy. Then comes the civ dynasty, only to be laughed at and dismissed with agonising remorse for her demise. TW has the interesting legacy, but just as the civ dynasty, sharing the doomed end. Yet, both provide the game a map. The accuracy of the topography is nowhere to be discussed, and both are abhorrently low in resolution. The civ dynasty has no precision on the field for waypoints, with the units occupying the same tile-size as the cities. TW by its design can proclaim her authority in the precision of tactical maps, but again, lacks the accuracy for her globe.
This game, together with her cousins, on the other hand, with all her lacking and errors and mistakes and shortcomings and faults on the topography, has the high accuracy to satisfy the conditions to be considered a simulation on the map. The precision falls short on the level of individual units, so the counties, or the cities, or the provinces, are simplified assumptions of the real-world areas, but the quantity of them is unmatched, and remedies this simplification. A grand strategy, by her strong simulation elements.
But, you are not able to answer the question why you are playing this game. Besides, you are not agreeing with the conclusion that you have just now arrived. Not any more. Your disillusion is the catalyst of your question. Yes, finally, a certain step thus far.
Yet, it is not sufficient, it does not fulfil the reasoning, it is not an answer at all. You are playing this game, despite the disillusionment you are in. Her charm has escaped you. It did. It is.
Wait. You are confused.
This is doubt, on the very basic level. You repeatedly expressed your hatred, then discarded it as an exaggerated form of agitation. Only its name you have found out. The charming spell was the grand strategy, by the strong simulation elements. It was the potential you were attracted to, and then you have seen through the illusion.
Then? What will happen once you find your reason to play the game, you do not know. You assumed that you have a reason, and restarted the questions to investigate in greater details. The first conclusion is the naming of the motivation but for the question, and it pushes you over the edge of certainty into the abyss of indecisiveness.
The map. It holds the key. The simulation. So, the time-flow. The history, it models. The strategy falling before the eyes, as the simulation collapses.
The depth of the abyss is endless.
You quickly double-click on the icon.
Hello ottos. Do not look with such worried eyes. Not hesitating, blowing off some stress. Look away. Ottos are concerned.
As the war ends, the code starts to fall.
It was inevitable in any case, but it was expected to last a bit longer before the moves of the player. You failed to pre-calculate, it made its move, you were thrilled, then you rapidly decayed into the morbid loss of the joy, again.
The heralds arrive, and of course the austria-tag is not an eligible rival for the ottos any more.
The fall of the code has already begun. This will continue as the run proceeds, and the powerful tags will drop and come back, in quick succession, in their eligibility as rivals for the player.
An interesting development happens. Or rather, the volatile nature of the design for the flow of the code. The Inheritance of Burgundy.
Despite the burgundy has been marauding the imperial princes since the beginning of the run, and once the austria-tag lost the election to the bohemia-tag, she shifted the gear to hyper-drive, so a couple of more wars with all and the emperor; despite all, her relations with any of the imperial-tags have been apparently positive. The result is that the choice of the code to be the junior partner for the emperor.
Now this would have brought another spark to ignite the fire of the hope, yet the combustion chamber is silent in the mind. It is clear that the bohemia-tag, or any other under the control of the code, cannot manage the PUs at all. The first condition to overcome is the relation; once established, the relations must be positive. It is therefore a special risk to force a personal union on a tag while playing with an old ruler. The problem is to achieve positive relations with the PU-partner but before the death of the ruler. A run against time and pseudo-random number generator as the code calculates the death of the overlord-ruler.
Even if the code manages this, or generally it acquires the PU through diplomacy, so with amicable relations, then comes the management. A PU subject does not pay fees, it does not provide force limit, but it certainly serves as an increment in the might-factor for the calculations of the code. Acquiring a subject is always beneficial for the player, as said before. Fight the code with the help of the code. But for the code, even if it is crucial to have such subjects, it ludicrously has no inclination to keep its subjects. It will annex every and all as soon as the function is available. It will over-abuse all subjects to the limits of the interactions. And it does not try to manage, care, nor protect its subjects.
In the case of the PU, the code will not even bother if it is not able to reach it. A PU does generate rebels as any other tag, independent or subject, and the most dangerous ones are the noble-rebels and the pretenders. If the pretenders of the PU win, the subject becomes independent. That is why the burgundian inheritance brings no excitement, as it is with very high probability the bohemia-tag will lose it by such pretenders. It would be interesting if it could do successfully manage it, so another powerful rival for the player. But no, the code already caves in against the france-tag, thus the burgundian lands are partitioned. The heartlands go to the france, and the bohemia has the PU over the lowlands.
Enough of the heralds. Back to you, ottos. Oh, right. The three marches are fine; now the allies, the guarantees, so the new vassals.
[*]
Hello again shirvan, the new vassal. Make her a march, send the officers, take any debts off.
Check circassia; now is the time for an alliance. Send gift, influence, even give subsidies to reach the required +190 relations. It is not there yet, but it will be sorted out soon. When the relations are about +165, gazikumukh-tag can be scornfully insulted, as it is the rival of the circassia-tag; this will please the latter, and the requirement to vassalize will be fulfilled. That is why the rivalry mechanic is critical for the code to function.
Enough ducats you have, so two more manufactories; the technology has advanced already, so a couple of shipyards are to be constructed, to ease the burden of having more ships than the naval force limit. Now additional trade-ships can be built too.
Black news arrives, and the turbo-ruler of the ottos is no more. The otto-tag has another burden during successions: Pay the janissaries, or face the consequences. Therefore it is advantageous to keep the janissary-recruitment at lower rates compared to the regulars. But the payment is generally high compared to what is in the treasury; especially in this case after ordering the construction of two manufactories. Now in debt, but there is no need for a panic. The player is the ottos, and the economy is not a concern.
Thus comes the moment of another shift in the objectives of the player. With the new ruler, certain decisions become available. Adopting the Title of Khalifa, Denouncement of Sect Practices, and Islamic Centre of Scholarly Learning. All provide various advantages, in terms of prestige, lower unrest, and the last one giving tech-cost reduction by 5%. Yet all increase the scale in the direction of positive, that is in the legalism side of the muslim religion. The year is 1496, and the ottos do not need such advantages, not even the tech-cost reduction, not any more. Decision alerts can be turned off. Carry on.
The reason is, the time has come to accumulate mysticism, meaning negative on the scale. This also means a limitation on the targets. From this point on, heretic or heathen targets are not priorities, and direct war declarations on such targets shall be avoided as much as possible. Only the true faith targets are free of the hesitating moments for any future plans. The ottos will fight against the sunni, and only the sunni, whenever it is possible, so the mysticism can be gained. For morale and fort defence boosts.
The economy is not a concern, as said before, since the net income is about fifteen (15) ducats per month. While maintaining an army force of 70k. Yes, albeit faint, the light of the saturation level is already about there, shining through the tunnel, unfortunately. More and more monarch points are accumulated, so they can be spent on the ideas.
Back to the pre-war discussion.
The game has only two elements as strategic choices.
The Initial Alliance Ring
Yes, the strategy in this game depends first and foremost on the initial alliances that are made. Runs with the tags of ming, ottos, and mughals will never be in need of such strategic choices; yet the muscovy-tag does have the problem at the beginning, and this strategic element of the game lasts for only the first couple of months of the run. The france- and england-tags are more relaxed, the colonisers are limited in their choices, yet malwa- or bengal-tags do necessitate a careful consideration for the first alliances. The palembang- or majapahit-tags are desperate for good allies to be chosen, and the ryukyu- or the knights-tags are in absolute need of any allies they can manage.
Nevertheless, a couple of months into the game, and the rest will be silent. The lübeck- or genoa-tags will go from one ally to another, the switzerland-tag will endlessly try a balance between the emperor-austria and the france, but the inca- or maya-tags will not even have a chance to make any credible friends, once they are on their course of rise, and nor they also will ever need any after that. Of course, all such claims are for the player. The code does… whatever it does.
The Ideas
The ideas are what remains as the sustainable strategic element of this game. Sustainable, but very limited. There are eight (8) slots allotted for a choice, available at certain technology levels, and there are eighteen (18) sets to choose from. The new ones specific to government types are not elaborated, as there have been only two (2) before and up to the emperor expansion, then came the monstrous leviathan, and there were more for other governments. Who knows what they are, but the interest is no more.
The Permutation
Regardless of the actual total, there are only eighteen (18) for any tag that is played during its run. Three groups; Administrative, Diplomacy, Military. The first problem to be solved is therefore the permutation to be chosen for the eight (8) slots. The general strategy is to go with 3-3-2 combination, and any permutation of it. Usually some players will go with 3-military ideas, to accumulate as much advantage on the battlefield as possible. However, that is redundant for many of the tags. Especially for the turbo-tags. The permutation heavily depends on the playstyle, the objectives, and also the tag that is played. A combination of 4-2-2, and any permutation of it is also reasonable. 5-3-1 is rarely seen. However…
The Initial Filtering, the Opportunity-Cost, and the Monarchs
Yes, however. The reality of the game mechanics enters the stage once the unpause is hit. The main and de facto situation is the time of the run in comparison to the time of unlocking the idea set. The first three (3) slots are unlocked by the time the tech-level 10 is reached. The first-3-choice defines the opener-strategy, they set the course of the run, they open the plan, and they close the rest into the set of the aftermath.
The initial choice depends on the simple decision: If the tag is a coloniser, then there is no dispute, the first-3 will contain the Explo-Expansion. The third is situational. Delaying the Explo-Expansion to the era after the first-3 choices as a coloniser is only reserved for the set of highly advantageous tags, which are the usual-band: castile-, england-, france-, portugal-, and even the holland-netherlands-tag. The rest cannot afford such a delay; tags-of-indonesian-islands, korea-tag, mali-tag, morocco-tag, and especially the granada-tag. Besides, taking Explo may seem interesting as the muscovy-tag, but that is highly unnecessary, incredibly situational, and never to be as an opener. Taking Explo as the mughals is… yeah, laughable. The sarcastic tone of the question Why? is unparalleled for such choices.
Naturally if the tag is not a coloniser, and the run does not involve such direction, then the choices are free from the damning shackles of the Explo-Expansion, which are outright filler ideas in any regard, taking the run as hostage when employed.
Moving on from the deplorable mandate of Explo-Expansion. The openers as the first-3 are critical, and the de facto reality of the game does not forgive hysterical fantasies. The name of the hysteria is the Administrative-Set of the administrative group.
Under no circumstances, in no situation, for no reason, the Admin-set can serve any purpose. For no tag. Nought. None. Zero. It provides mercenary cost reductions and merc-manpower. No tag in the game will ever be in desperate need of mercs and can remedy their demise with such pseudo-bonuses. The rich, the advantageous, the lucky, the powerful, the strong, the large tags do seldomly need mercs; the poor, the disadvantageous, the unlucky, the ineffective, the weak, the small tags cannot efficiently benefit from merc-bonuses. Their economy simply cannot afford it, but moreover than that, such a tag, when Admin-set is chosen, will lose the opportunity by wasting one slot in the administrative group. That is correct, the base factor is the opportunity-cost of the choice. That is also the reason for detesting the Explo-Expansion duo.
But it is the popular choice, generally considered. The reason is the second idea of the set, that is the core-cost-reduction. -25% coring cost. And therefore it is given as a reasonable choice. You do not fall into that trap, as no tag in the game can benefit from it while being able to afford 400+400 admin-points. The waste is too much, and the game already limits the affordability in terms of monarch points by the… yes, monarchs.
Runs with 11- to 14-monarchs can waste the points for one, or two ideas between each technology advancement. The dream-scenarios of 15- to 17-monarchs do naturally provide a problem-free run with more than two ideas per technology level reached. Even during heavy conquests. The phantom 18-monarchs should not be considered for valid strategies, as they are rare, and they die quickly by the thermonuclear warfare of hunting accidents. For 10-monarchs and lower statistical attributes, the player should feel lucky to not fall behind the neighbours in technology, so the ideas are low in the priority. In this regard, the incredibly unnecessary Admin-set becomes permanent entry in the list of never-to-even-look-at-it.
Yes, the banal-listing of Espionage, Maritime, Naval sets are always there to banter on. It should be reminded that Espionage is not a set for the players to choose but reserved for the code, as its opportunity cost is extremely high. Naval set has the curse of being in the military group. But Maritime, well, that is one of the secrets of the game, which eludes all those eyes looking maniacally for discipline, morale, CCR, and other such redundancies. More can be said for that one, but not at this point. Moving on.
Thus, main parameters are the permutation, the initial filtering, and the opportunity-cost, as well as the monarchs. Furthermore, the opportunity-cost is not only for the ideas, but for the policies the sets provide when finished. The policies are infinitely more advantageous for any pairing of any idea-duo than the ones that can be enacted by taking the Admin-set. The final nail on the coffin.
The First-3, or the Openers
Openers are of utmost importance: One cannot benefit by any margin with a set from the administrative group, while conquering heavily, and expecting to advance in admin-tech, at the beginning of any run. Opening with military group is too expensive, as the mil-tech bonuses are always more relevant than any idea set of the military group, a situation which is extremely important during the first 50 years of the run. Therefore the diplomatic group opener is the safest route. The rest of the choices are tag-dependent.
Thus come the tags. Turbo-tags have always more freedom in their decisions to make an investment for the future, while the smaller-tags should take their steps carefully, in risk-free, calculated measures.
But the player is the ottos. Yes. The otto-tag does not even need any of the idea sets. Even the ming-tag may require a couple of them, but the ottos, especially for the initial decades, no. Even the absolute-luckiest tag of the game, the castile, has to take Explo-Expansion duo. Not the ottos.
The only reason to take and enable an idea set for the ottos is: To get rid of the alert-notification above. Funny as it may sound, but that is the situation. And yes, unlocking the national-ideas. That one also serves some purpose.
The opener should be always the Diplo-set of the diplomatic group. Always, for any tag, for all runs, if the run is not a colonisation-mania. Playing the holland-netherlands-tag? Diplo-set, otherwise face the Holy Roman Intervention, as well as the Punitive Wars. Playing the butua-tag? Diplo-set, otherwise die out from loneliness against the kilwa-tag. Playing the ashikaga-tag? There is not much to do, except for increasing the relations with the daimyos. All right, a daimyo-run? Well, during the hectic sengoku jidai, only the Diplo-set will be the reasonable choice. Diplo-points are low priority compared to the other two, they can be spent regardless of the situation, and by doing so, national-ideas can be unlocked faster than with any other set.
Sigh. Admin-set, again? Ok, take it. Take the ideas. No no, please do so. For that superb(!) CCR bonus. Spend 800 points to get it. Now far behind in admin-tech. No admin-points to core any provinces after conquests. But they are cheaper, right? Yeah. Inflation is at 5% by all those lump-sum ducats from peace treaties; no admin-points left to reduce it. Stability is at -1, no admin-points to increase it. Maybe not in europa-continent, so institution has to be spawned by development. No admin-points to spend on tax-admin. All wasted for that magnificent(!) CCR bonus. Yeah, what a wonderful strategy. But hey, you also have cost reduction by a hyper(!) 10% for mercenaries. While the economy is in ruins, while cannot even afford regular forces. Yeah, perfect set to choose.
No. Never the Admin-set. In any case the administrative group as opener is for few tags only, and for no-conquest-runs.
Opener as military group; redundant. Absolutely unnecessary also because the player is the ottos. Diplomatic group, it has to be. The Esp-set provides very niche bonuses, with an enormous cost of opportunity, and that one is created for only the code, not the player. So, it is also eliminated from the list of reasonable choices, leaving only five (5) to consider. Diplo-set it is, as discussed.
The second set, by the tech-level of 7. Now comes the tricky part. One can again be seduced by a set from the administrative group, which is also reduced to five (5) eligible choices now. But it is still too early for that group, and the tag is not a coloniser. Military group for the second idea it is.
The tag of the player is the ottos. Therefore it will never require the Quantity-set. Never. Naval-set is pointless, as the tag is a Mediterranean power, meaning the battles over the waves are dominated by the number of galleys, not the fighting capability of heavy ships. So there are four (4) sets for the ottos to choose from the military group.
It is too early for the Quality-set, as the benefits of that will send the tag into space while the others will be carving the stones in caves. Offensive-set is for the rich tags, and the ottos can afford it, and the ottos do not need it. Yes, the ottos do not need any of the idea sets in any case, but the time for Off-set has not come yet – and it may never do so.
Therefore the Defensive-set remains as the choice of the sound reason, and it is thus safe for any tag, not just the ottos. And choosing it will only cost the opportunity. Yes, the secret opportunity. Especially for the ottos. The main objective is to keep the run far from its saturation level as long as possible, while making safe choices. Choosing any of the military group will in any case boost the tag, but for the ottos, there is another choice.
The Aristocratic-set.
That is another secret weapon for the ottos, for the turbo-tags, and for any tag the player controls. No set can match its power, as it boosts the cavalry fighting capability? No, not that one. It reduces the cost for mil-tech by the second idea, yes, that is crucial. But not the most important. It also boosts the manpower, now that is the cool aspect. Manpower increase without wasting the points for the Quantity-set, and while enjoying +1 military leader, another +1 diplomat, and reduction on the military tradition decay. It does also give yearly absolutism and merc-manpower, but these are irrelevant. It also increases the control gain through additional autonomy change. All good, or crucial, or cool.
But the most important aspect is two-fold. No tag of the code chooses it, at this early stage. Every idea of the Aristo-set will boost the innovativeness for the player in this case.
The other one, and the victorious of the day, and the prize at the end of the rainbow; it is the finisher condition. +1 siege-pip for generals. No more rolling for military leaders until one with any siege-pip is spawned. That is the power of the Aristo-set.
Otherwise, the player will have fun with seven hundred (700) days or more of sieges. Case example, fighting against the hamburg-tag, and sieging the Walls of Hamburg. Nought-siege-pip means forgetting that siege-army-stack for the rest of the war. 1-siege-pip means that war will be finished sooner. Therefore the Aristo-set, and it is for any tag. Of course, except the merchant republics. That will come much later.
Thus ends the case of the ideas. The story of it will continue though, but not for long.
Yes.
12 ideas, by 1498, after Anatolia and Balkan conquests, and still ahead of time in tech by seven (7) years.
Because turbo-monarch, diplo-set opener, and aristo-set as the second.
That is how those provinces can be conquered with low War Scores;
the low-cost of provinces in the peace deals thanks to diplo-set.
That is how tech-advance is thus fast, as both provide tech-cost reduction.
That is how the manpower is thus high, even after wars, owing to aristo-set.
That is how the coalitions are under control, owing to current +2 (and +1) diplomats by these two sets.
Check the circassia-tag. Relations are at +173. Scornfully insult its rival, the gazikumukh-tag. Relations are at +198.
Welcome circassia, the new vassal. Make her a march, send the officers, take any debts off.
Oh. It is 1500.
A merchant named Cristoffa Corombo of Genoa must have made a trip, fantasising about reaching the India, but ending his journey at a different destination.
Or no, that was about eight years before the date. Probably someone else have made it this time. Regardless, that is not the prompt for the event of the voyage, but for the end of an era.
Colonialism is born.
[**]
[*] Still-images from The Terminator (a. Bruce M. Kerner, Arnold Schwarzenegger) (1984)
[**] Bonny at Morn, folk music, from the album Nine Points of Roguery, by The Virginia Company (1990)
Another noticeable version in the album The Northumberland Collection, by Kathryn Tickell (1998)
The association of the song, from the opening soundtrack of Sid Meier's Colonization (1994, actual creator is Brian Reynolds), composed by Allister Brimble. Note; Amiga version is far superior than the PC version.
The folk song can be found as an entry in the book-record Northumbrian Minstrelsy by John C. Bruce and John Stokoe (1882)
Edit 22.10.2023: Corrected formatting, lexical, grammatical, factual, typographical, structural mistakes. Corrected inconsistent narrative elements. Added the missing reference for the adaptation-images.
The issue of the map was ever-there, since the beginning of the games. Be it on the board, otherwise in the digital code of the graphics, the map defines the limits of the imagination. For the games created and played directly by and in the minds of the players, those are the capacities possessed by those minds. The potential of the mind defines the objective, the action, the calculation, the joy, and of course the reason itself, as there is no external input in that regard. The last part; that is not the direction this discussion goes through. Proceed to the point.
Those minds of the players do not, cannot, and will not conflict, as the reference datum is also given by another, but of the dungeon master. Yes, in the before times, it was not the game master. Regardless whatever it is called for the director of the game, the playground is defined by the maps of the players as they can dream of, yet they are always in coordination with the dream of the director. With the minds in absolute control of the entire system, the game can proceed into any side of the spectrum.
That spectrum is the battleground of the clash, and its name is the War of the Type. Genre may fit too, style can serve a proper substitute. For the games, it can be either an arcade, otherwise it will be a simulation. The dream-force of the mind cannot be defined even a bit by such classifications, and this one makes only a crude dichotomy between its sides. There are more than what possibly can be imagined, and there will be even more, yet in the case of this game, and the question, the two options are sufficient.
The arcade game is the set of rules that requires the physical coordination of any muscle of the player. At this point, it is redundant to conflate with the sports, and that would be true. Beyond the mind, the physical constitution is a major key in the process of the equation provided by the game to be solved. Therefore, the Basketball does have infinite more chances in a comparison, when a digital game of the arcade type is brought against it. Again, the examples are numerous. But for the given one, the interaction of the centre, forwards, guards, the amount of the decisions, the required time for the strategy, and the life on the court of a basketball match far exceed any model of an arcade game that is digitally coded and played through monitors. The comparative case does not need to be so oblique; tabletop against the digital game, and then Chess, and over them Go, and any other board, will forever be victorious in comparison against any type of digital game of the arcade type ever can be. Ever. Such games may not require the physical-forces of the muscles, but they depend on the stamina of the minds, the calculation of the strategy, the patience of the players. It is therefore the digital games of the arcade types will always be shackled to that side of the spectrum, whereas Basketball, or Go, or Chess are always superior with indefinite classifications, ranging from the arcade nature of the match, to the strategy of the moment, the period, the life they simulate.
Thus enters the other side of the clash; the simulation game. And that one carries a heavy subject over itself. The concept has to be decomposed into parts, and the first one has the priority to analyse. The fire of the situation, the light of the case, the spark of the problem for this game.
A simulation, in a crude definition, is a mathematical model with certain assumptions in order to express the real-world process, but continuous over a certain period of time. A single result of a function for a unit time point is only a solution of an equation. It has to be a series-of-solutions over a time in order to be a simulation.
Core elements are already given, and the most glaring one is the assumption. The assumptions are the abstractions for the definition of the process, either to satisfy the lacking information for it, or to simplify the model to achieve a result but with a quicker, or a simpler, or a narrower approach.
The other one is the real-world process. The flow of a unit-package of fluid particles can be expressed by applying the Newton’s second law of motion, namely the conservation of momentum. Other definitions are also added in order to fulfil the required amount of equations, as the conservation of mass and energy of a fluid package moving through a definite control volume. The system achieved is named as the Navier-Stokes equations, and the solutions can reveal the dynamics of the flow. The calculation is called the direct numerical simulation. Yet, such a simulation requires enormous amounts of digital processing for the applications, therefore advanced tools are applied to decompose the system of equations into steady and random parts. Steady part of the flow does not change over time by its definition, but the random flow varies temporally. That part is called the turbulence. Modern research undergoes mathematical models for the turbulence, to achieve more accurate results for the solutions of Navier-Stokes equations to analyse the flow of a fluid.
And yet, real-world processes are not limited to the particles, but also used to define any other process. The traffic, either on rails, or in air, can be modelled in mathematical terms to provide accurate estimations rather than biased guesses. Any process; and similar to the last example given, such a modelling can be used to simulate the interactions of populations over a period of time. For example, a simulation of history, in colloquial terms.
At that point, the swords are drawn. Beyond the usual criticisms of the methodology being inapplicable for individuals, the credible argument against such an abstraction is the history itself, or rather historiography. How the history will be viewed, investigated, analysed, processed, expressed, becomes the main problem.
There comes the map.
As soon as the map is drawn, then the simulation is an observation but beyond the process. It is needless to say, as isolated simulations with shorter spans and narrower control volumes, but on the ground instead of observing beyond the skies, can very well delve into the field of artistic interpretation. When the resolution is increased, thus the observer gets closer to the individuals in the process, the amount of assumptions increase at the same time. The control volume becomes sharper in the contrast scale, yet the entire process is blurred. When the limits of the simulation are overcome, the artistic interpretation can reach beyond the horizons of the imagination. Yet, the direction has to be clear, otherwise the implausible will override the intention, and the result is spoilt.
Now, back to the decomposed concept, and the case at the hand. The game aspect is added to the simulation, with the map is drawn over the control volume. This game, together with her cousins, has no match against them in terms of the resolution they provide as the map. No other game there is, giving the scope of the map this game has. The global projection for this game; and for the case of crusader kings, a certain part of the world considered to be fitting her theme; they are without a rival, and they are beautiful.
They simulate the history over a certain period of time for a large number of entities, and the resolution of the map is a higher representation than any other in the genre. And what genre it is, the question of yours has the interest in it.
However not exactly precise in terms of the waypoints it represents, this game is superior in accuracy for the real world topography compared to any other in the genre. This game and her cousins are of course more accurate in terms of the topographical resolution for the simulated elements on the map than the similar ones. c&c-starcraft-aoe, and before them herzog zwei and dune2; yet these can be only considered as tactical strategy, and calling them any type of strategy would still be a forced attempt to compliment such arcade games. Their precision of the tactical field they depend on is unmatched, however they do not possess any large-scale map to be compared for any accuracy. Then comes the civ dynasty, only to be laughed at and dismissed with agonising remorse for her demise. TW has the interesting legacy, but just as the civ dynasty, sharing the doomed end. Yet, both provide the game a map. The accuracy of the topography is nowhere to be discussed, and both are abhorrently low in resolution. The civ dynasty has no precision on the field for waypoints, with the units occupying the same tile-size as the cities. TW by its design can proclaim her authority in the precision of tactical maps, but again, lacks the accuracy for her globe.
This game, together with her cousins, on the other hand, with all her lacking and errors and mistakes and shortcomings and faults on the topography, has the high accuracy to satisfy the conditions to be considered a simulation on the map. The precision falls short on the level of individual units, so the counties, or the cities, or the provinces, are simplified assumptions of the real-world areas, but the quantity of them is unmatched, and remedies this simplification. A grand strategy, by her strong simulation elements.
But, you are not able to answer the question why you are playing this game. Besides, you are not agreeing with the conclusion that you have just now arrived. Not any more. Your disillusion is the catalyst of your question. Yes, finally, a certain step thus far.
Yet, it is not sufficient, it does not fulfil the reasoning, it is not an answer at all. You are playing this game, despite the disillusionment you are in. Her charm has escaped you. It did. It is.
Wait. You are confused.
This is doubt, on the very basic level. You repeatedly expressed your hatred, then discarded it as an exaggerated form of agitation. Only its name you have found out. The charming spell was the grand strategy, by the strong simulation elements. It was the potential you were attracted to, and then you have seen through the illusion.
Then? What will happen once you find your reason to play the game, you do not know. You assumed that you have a reason, and restarted the questions to investigate in greater details. The first conclusion is the naming of the motivation but for the question, and it pushes you over the edge of certainty into the abyss of indecisiveness.
The map. It holds the key. The simulation. So, the time-flow. The history, it models. The strategy falling before the eyes, as the simulation collapses.
The depth of the abyss is endless.
You quickly double-click on the icon.
CHAPTER VIII
Hello ottos. Do not look with such worried eyes. Not hesitating, blowing off some stress. Look away. Ottos are concerned.
As the war ends, the code starts to fall.
It was inevitable in any case, but it was expected to last a bit longer before the moves of the player. You failed to pre-calculate, it made its move, you were thrilled, then you rapidly decayed into the morbid loss of the joy, again.
The heralds arrive, and of course the austria-tag is not an eligible rival for the ottos any more.
The fall of the code has already begun. This will continue as the run proceeds, and the powerful tags will drop and come back, in quick succession, in their eligibility as rivals for the player.
An interesting development happens. Or rather, the volatile nature of the design for the flow of the code. The Inheritance of Burgundy.
Despite the burgundy has been marauding the imperial princes since the beginning of the run, and once the austria-tag lost the election to the bohemia-tag, she shifted the gear to hyper-drive, so a couple of more wars with all and the emperor; despite all, her relations with any of the imperial-tags have been apparently positive. The result is that the choice of the code to be the junior partner for the emperor.
Now this would have brought another spark to ignite the fire of the hope, yet the combustion chamber is silent in the mind. It is clear that the bohemia-tag, or any other under the control of the code, cannot manage the PUs at all. The first condition to overcome is the relation; once established, the relations must be positive. It is therefore a special risk to force a personal union on a tag while playing with an old ruler. The problem is to achieve positive relations with the PU-partner but before the death of the ruler. A run against time and pseudo-random number generator as the code calculates the death of the overlord-ruler.
Even if the code manages this, or generally it acquires the PU through diplomacy, so with amicable relations, then comes the management. A PU subject does not pay fees, it does not provide force limit, but it certainly serves as an increment in the might-factor for the calculations of the code. Acquiring a subject is always beneficial for the player, as said before. Fight the code with the help of the code. But for the code, even if it is crucial to have such subjects, it ludicrously has no inclination to keep its subjects. It will annex every and all as soon as the function is available. It will over-abuse all subjects to the limits of the interactions. And it does not try to manage, care, nor protect its subjects.
In the case of the PU, the code will not even bother if it is not able to reach it. A PU does generate rebels as any other tag, independent or subject, and the most dangerous ones are the noble-rebels and the pretenders. If the pretenders of the PU win, the subject becomes independent. That is why the burgundian inheritance brings no excitement, as it is with very high probability the bohemia-tag will lose it by such pretenders. It would be interesting if it could do successfully manage it, so another powerful rival for the player. But no, the code already caves in against the france-tag, thus the burgundian lands are partitioned. The heartlands go to the france, and the bohemia has the PU over the lowlands.
Enough of the heralds. Back to you, ottos. Oh, right. The three marches are fine; now the allies, the guarantees, so the new vassals.
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Check circassia; now is the time for an alliance. Send gift, influence, even give subsidies to reach the required +190 relations. It is not there yet, but it will be sorted out soon. When the relations are about +165, gazikumukh-tag can be scornfully insulted, as it is the rival of the circassia-tag; this will please the latter, and the requirement to vassalize will be fulfilled. That is why the rivalry mechanic is critical for the code to function.
Enough ducats you have, so two more manufactories; the technology has advanced already, so a couple of shipyards are to be constructed, to ease the burden of having more ships than the naval force limit. Now additional trade-ships can be built too.
Black news arrives, and the turbo-ruler of the ottos is no more. The otto-tag has another burden during successions: Pay the janissaries, or face the consequences. Therefore it is advantageous to keep the janissary-recruitment at lower rates compared to the regulars. But the payment is generally high compared to what is in the treasury; especially in this case after ordering the construction of two manufactories. Now in debt, but there is no need for a panic. The player is the ottos, and the economy is not a concern.
Thus comes the moment of another shift in the objectives of the player. With the new ruler, certain decisions become available. Adopting the Title of Khalifa, Denouncement of Sect Practices, and Islamic Centre of Scholarly Learning. All provide various advantages, in terms of prestige, lower unrest, and the last one giving tech-cost reduction by 5%. Yet all increase the scale in the direction of positive, that is in the legalism side of the muslim religion. The year is 1496, and the ottos do not need such advantages, not even the tech-cost reduction, not any more. Decision alerts can be turned off. Carry on.
The reason is, the time has come to accumulate mysticism, meaning negative on the scale. This also means a limitation on the targets. From this point on, heretic or heathen targets are not priorities, and direct war declarations on such targets shall be avoided as much as possible. Only the true faith targets are free of the hesitating moments for any future plans. The ottos will fight against the sunni, and only the sunni, whenever it is possible, so the mysticism can be gained. For morale and fort defence boosts.
The economy is not a concern, as said before, since the net income is about fifteen (15) ducats per month. While maintaining an army force of 70k. Yes, albeit faint, the light of the saturation level is already about there, shining through the tunnel, unfortunately. More and more monarch points are accumulated, so they can be spent on the ideas.
Back to the pre-war discussion.
The Case of the Ideas
The game has only two elements as strategic choices.
The Initial Alliance Ring
Yes, the strategy in this game depends first and foremost on the initial alliances that are made. Runs with the tags of ming, ottos, and mughals will never be in need of such strategic choices; yet the muscovy-tag does have the problem at the beginning, and this strategic element of the game lasts for only the first couple of months of the run. The france- and england-tags are more relaxed, the colonisers are limited in their choices, yet malwa- or bengal-tags do necessitate a careful consideration for the first alliances. The palembang- or majapahit-tags are desperate for good allies to be chosen, and the ryukyu- or the knights-tags are in absolute need of any allies they can manage.
Nevertheless, a couple of months into the game, and the rest will be silent. The lübeck- or genoa-tags will go from one ally to another, the switzerland-tag will endlessly try a balance between the emperor-austria and the france, but the inca- or maya-tags will not even have a chance to make any credible friends, once they are on their course of rise, and nor they also will ever need any after that. Of course, all such claims are for the player. The code does… whatever it does.
The Ideas
The ideas are what remains as the sustainable strategic element of this game. Sustainable, but very limited. There are eight (8) slots allotted for a choice, available at certain technology levels, and there are eighteen (18) sets to choose from. The new ones specific to government types are not elaborated, as there have been only two (2) before and up to the emperor expansion, then came the monstrous leviathan, and there were more for other governments. Who knows what they are, but the interest is no more.
The Permutation
Regardless of the actual total, there are only eighteen (18) for any tag that is played during its run. Three groups; Administrative, Diplomacy, Military. The first problem to be solved is therefore the permutation to be chosen for the eight (8) slots. The general strategy is to go with 3-3-2 combination, and any permutation of it. Usually some players will go with 3-military ideas, to accumulate as much advantage on the battlefield as possible. However, that is redundant for many of the tags. Especially for the turbo-tags. The permutation heavily depends on the playstyle, the objectives, and also the tag that is played. A combination of 4-2-2, and any permutation of it is also reasonable. 5-3-1 is rarely seen. However…
The Initial Filtering, the Opportunity-Cost, and the Monarchs
Yes, however. The reality of the game mechanics enters the stage once the unpause is hit. The main and de facto situation is the time of the run in comparison to the time of unlocking the idea set. The first three (3) slots are unlocked by the time the tech-level 10 is reached. The first-3-choice defines the opener-strategy, they set the course of the run, they open the plan, and they close the rest into the set of the aftermath.
The initial choice depends on the simple decision: If the tag is a coloniser, then there is no dispute, the first-3 will contain the Explo-Expansion. The third is situational. Delaying the Explo-Expansion to the era after the first-3 choices as a coloniser is only reserved for the set of highly advantageous tags, which are the usual-band: castile-, england-, france-, portugal-, and even the holland-netherlands-tag. The rest cannot afford such a delay; tags-of-indonesian-islands, korea-tag, mali-tag, morocco-tag, and especially the granada-tag. Besides, taking Explo may seem interesting as the muscovy-tag, but that is highly unnecessary, incredibly situational, and never to be as an opener. Taking Explo as the mughals is… yeah, laughable. The sarcastic tone of the question Why? is unparalleled for such choices.
Naturally if the tag is not a coloniser, and the run does not involve such direction, then the choices are free from the damning shackles of the Explo-Expansion, which are outright filler ideas in any regard, taking the run as hostage when employed.
Moving on from the deplorable mandate of Explo-Expansion. The openers as the first-3 are critical, and the de facto reality of the game does not forgive hysterical fantasies. The name of the hysteria is the Administrative-Set of the administrative group.
Under no circumstances, in no situation, for no reason, the Admin-set can serve any purpose. For no tag. Nought. None. Zero. It provides mercenary cost reductions and merc-manpower. No tag in the game will ever be in desperate need of mercs and can remedy their demise with such pseudo-bonuses. The rich, the advantageous, the lucky, the powerful, the strong, the large tags do seldomly need mercs; the poor, the disadvantageous, the unlucky, the ineffective, the weak, the small tags cannot efficiently benefit from merc-bonuses. Their economy simply cannot afford it, but moreover than that, such a tag, when Admin-set is chosen, will lose the opportunity by wasting one slot in the administrative group. That is correct, the base factor is the opportunity-cost of the choice. That is also the reason for detesting the Explo-Expansion duo.
But it is the popular choice, generally considered. The reason is the second idea of the set, that is the core-cost-reduction. -25% coring cost. And therefore it is given as a reasonable choice. You do not fall into that trap, as no tag in the game can benefit from it while being able to afford 400+400 admin-points. The waste is too much, and the game already limits the affordability in terms of monarch points by the… yes, monarchs.
Runs with 11- to 14-monarchs can waste the points for one, or two ideas between each technology advancement. The dream-scenarios of 15- to 17-monarchs do naturally provide a problem-free run with more than two ideas per technology level reached. Even during heavy conquests. The phantom 18-monarchs should not be considered for valid strategies, as they are rare, and they die quickly by the thermonuclear warfare of hunting accidents. For 10-monarchs and lower statistical attributes, the player should feel lucky to not fall behind the neighbours in technology, so the ideas are low in the priority. In this regard, the incredibly unnecessary Admin-set becomes permanent entry in the list of never-to-even-look-at-it.
Yes, the banal-listing of Espionage, Maritime, Naval sets are always there to banter on. It should be reminded that Espionage is not a set for the players to choose but reserved for the code, as its opportunity cost is extremely high. Naval set has the curse of being in the military group. But Maritime, well, that is one of the secrets of the game, which eludes all those eyes looking maniacally for discipline, morale, CCR, and other such redundancies. More can be said for that one, but not at this point. Moving on.
Thus, main parameters are the permutation, the initial filtering, and the opportunity-cost, as well as the monarchs. Furthermore, the opportunity-cost is not only for the ideas, but for the policies the sets provide when finished. The policies are infinitely more advantageous for any pairing of any idea-duo than the ones that can be enacted by taking the Admin-set. The final nail on the coffin.
The First-3, or the Openers
Openers are of utmost importance: One cannot benefit by any margin with a set from the administrative group, while conquering heavily, and expecting to advance in admin-tech, at the beginning of any run. Opening with military group is too expensive, as the mil-tech bonuses are always more relevant than any idea set of the military group, a situation which is extremely important during the first 50 years of the run. Therefore the diplomatic group opener is the safest route. The rest of the choices are tag-dependent.
Thus come the tags. Turbo-tags have always more freedom in their decisions to make an investment for the future, while the smaller-tags should take their steps carefully, in risk-free, calculated measures.
But the player is the ottos. Yes. The otto-tag does not even need any of the idea sets. Even the ming-tag may require a couple of them, but the ottos, especially for the initial decades, no. Even the absolute-luckiest tag of the game, the castile, has to take Explo-Expansion duo. Not the ottos.
The only reason to take and enable an idea set for the ottos is: To get rid of the alert-notification above. Funny as it may sound, but that is the situation. And yes, unlocking the national-ideas. That one also serves some purpose.
The opener should be always the Diplo-set of the diplomatic group. Always, for any tag, for all runs, if the run is not a colonisation-mania. Playing the holland-netherlands-tag? Diplo-set, otherwise face the Holy Roman Intervention, as well as the Punitive Wars. Playing the butua-tag? Diplo-set, otherwise die out from loneliness against the kilwa-tag. Playing the ashikaga-tag? There is not much to do, except for increasing the relations with the daimyos. All right, a daimyo-run? Well, during the hectic sengoku jidai, only the Diplo-set will be the reasonable choice. Diplo-points are low priority compared to the other two, they can be spent regardless of the situation, and by doing so, national-ideas can be unlocked faster than with any other set.
Sigh. Admin-set, again? Ok, take it. Take the ideas. No no, please do so. For that superb(!) CCR bonus. Spend 800 points to get it. Now far behind in admin-tech. No admin-points to core any provinces after conquests. But they are cheaper, right? Yeah. Inflation is at 5% by all those lump-sum ducats from peace treaties; no admin-points left to reduce it. Stability is at -1, no admin-points to increase it. Maybe not in europa-continent, so institution has to be spawned by development. No admin-points to spend on tax-admin. All wasted for that magnificent(!) CCR bonus. Yeah, what a wonderful strategy. But hey, you also have cost reduction by a hyper(!) 10% for mercenaries. While the economy is in ruins, while cannot even afford regular forces. Yeah, perfect set to choose.
No. Never the Admin-set. In any case the administrative group as opener is for few tags only, and for no-conquest-runs.
Opener as military group; redundant. Absolutely unnecessary also because the player is the ottos. Diplomatic group, it has to be. The Esp-set provides very niche bonuses, with an enormous cost of opportunity, and that one is created for only the code, not the player. So, it is also eliminated from the list of reasonable choices, leaving only five (5) to consider. Diplo-set it is, as discussed.
The second set, by the tech-level of 7. Now comes the tricky part. One can again be seduced by a set from the administrative group, which is also reduced to five (5) eligible choices now. But it is still too early for that group, and the tag is not a coloniser. Military group for the second idea it is.
The tag of the player is the ottos. Therefore it will never require the Quantity-set. Never. Naval-set is pointless, as the tag is a Mediterranean power, meaning the battles over the waves are dominated by the number of galleys, not the fighting capability of heavy ships. So there are four (4) sets for the ottos to choose from the military group.
It is too early for the Quality-set, as the benefits of that will send the tag into space while the others will be carving the stones in caves. Offensive-set is for the rich tags, and the ottos can afford it, and the ottos do not need it. Yes, the ottos do not need any of the idea sets in any case, but the time for Off-set has not come yet – and it may never do so.
Therefore the Defensive-set remains as the choice of the sound reason, and it is thus safe for any tag, not just the ottos. And choosing it will only cost the opportunity. Yes, the secret opportunity. Especially for the ottos. The main objective is to keep the run far from its saturation level as long as possible, while making safe choices. Choosing any of the military group will in any case boost the tag, but for the ottos, there is another choice.
The Aristocratic-set.
That is another secret weapon for the ottos, for the turbo-tags, and for any tag the player controls. No set can match its power, as it boosts the cavalry fighting capability? No, not that one. It reduces the cost for mil-tech by the second idea, yes, that is crucial. But not the most important. It also boosts the manpower, now that is the cool aspect. Manpower increase without wasting the points for the Quantity-set, and while enjoying +1 military leader, another +1 diplomat, and reduction on the military tradition decay. It does also give yearly absolutism and merc-manpower, but these are irrelevant. It also increases the control gain through additional autonomy change. All good, or crucial, or cool.
But the most important aspect is two-fold. No tag of the code chooses it, at this early stage. Every idea of the Aristo-set will boost the innovativeness for the player in this case.
The other one, and the victorious of the day, and the prize at the end of the rainbow; it is the finisher condition. +1 siege-pip for generals. No more rolling for military leaders until one with any siege-pip is spawned. That is the power of the Aristo-set.
Otherwise, the player will have fun with seven hundred (700) days or more of sieges. Case example, fighting against the hamburg-tag, and sieging the Walls of Hamburg. Nought-siege-pip means forgetting that siege-army-stack for the rest of the war. 1-siege-pip means that war will be finished sooner. Therefore the Aristo-set, and it is for any tag. Of course, except the merchant republics. That will come much later.
Thus ends the case of the ideas. The story of it will continue though, but not for long.
Yes.
12 ideas, by 1498, after Anatolia and Balkan conquests, and still ahead of time in tech by seven (7) years.
Because turbo-monarch, diplo-set opener, and aristo-set as the second.
That is how those provinces can be conquered with low War Scores;
the low-cost of provinces in the peace deals thanks to diplo-set.
That is how tech-advance is thus fast, as both provide tech-cost reduction.
That is how the manpower is thus high, even after wars, owing to aristo-set.
That is how the coalitions are under control, owing to current +2 (and +1) diplomats by these two sets.
Check the circassia-tag. Relations are at +173. Scornfully insult its rival, the gazikumukh-tag. Relations are at +198.
Oh. It is 1500.
A merchant named Cristoffa Corombo of Genoa must have made a trip, fantasising about reaching the India, but ending his journey at a different destination.
Or no, that was about eight years before the date. Probably someone else have made it this time. Regardless, that is not the prompt for the event of the voyage, but for the end of an era.
Colonialism is born.
[*] Still-images from The Terminator (a. Bruce M. Kerner, Arnold Schwarzenegger) (1984)
[**] Bonny at Morn, folk music, from the album Nine Points of Roguery, by The Virginia Company (1990)
Another noticeable version in the album The Northumberland Collection, by Kathryn Tickell (1998)
The association of the song, from the opening soundtrack of Sid Meier's Colonization (1994, actual creator is Brian Reynolds), composed by Allister Brimble. Note; Amiga version is far superior than the PC version.
The folk song can be found as an entry in the book-record Northumbrian Minstrelsy by John C. Bruce and John Stokoe (1882)
Edit 22.10.2023: Corrected formatting, lexical, grammatical, factual, typographical, structural mistakes. Corrected inconsistent narrative elements. Added the missing reference for the adaptation-images.
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A good distillation of the idea groups there. I admit that I never know what to do but that has to do with not playing the game itself very much since it came out. After a certain period, I became more of a CK/CK2 player. As we discussed prior, I miss EU2. Perfection in its relative simplicity.
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eu2 was the one that started the Eon of Paradox for self. While not missing it any more, it was, is, and will be always the sweetheart in the boundless space of the mind as tasting the nectarine of nostalgia.
But then of course the crusader kings happened, thus The Age of CK began for self, with its golden age by The Horse Lords. Concurring with the sentiment, as the ultimate point of the aesthetic is still -and for apparently very long time approaching forever it will be- the ck series.
For eu2, though, well;
Cancionero de Upsala, 1556, by Joculatores Upsalienses (Woods, Women, and Wine,1983).
Once again cheers @Peter Ebbesen, for reminding it last year.
Yes, not going to give a spoiler, not even for music. Already said too much. Heh.
Edit: 08.01.2023: Corrected grammatical mistake.
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Book I - Chapter IX
The light has run away, hiding behind the grey. The particles with the majority of water vapours are winning the race of the saturation, to the point of the dew, so become the clouds by the condensation. The layer of the ashen colour has intensified, blocking the brightness of the shining, and the longing for the hopeful blue starts the day. The rays of the sun fight back, though. But then comes the overpowering darkness of the night, and the hope wanders off for faraway hours.
Your own classification pulses the glowing problems of the game, yet you are playing it still without knowing why. The class, the type, the genre, of this game you are insisting on launching again and again and more, escapes the definitions you can provide, yet you are not even able to get out of your own explanations in the ever-convoluted details. Slowing down the words, mind-jumping over the concepts, lucid-streaming of the subjects, neither do they help. Focus. Now.
The map holds the key. The key to the simulation is the time as it flows. The game of the strategy comes with the simulation of the details it depicts.
And then there you are; you were screaming that it is not a simulation, it can never be considered as such any more, and with the never-ending questions by each aspect, you concluded that it is an arcade game. The illusion was broken into pieces, and you are looking through the screen that does not reflect any light from any source on any object any more. An arcade, and the term is not even applicable for such a complex software.
The actual meaning of the arcade is an area within a covered structure, and constituting shops of various kinds. The arcade game comes from the convenience of the practice, evolving into the language, that such game-machines being located at such places. The entertainment value is considered the main parameter for the design of these, with minimised input requirements to play and minimised time to learn how to run any session of it.
However, owing to the relative natures of requirements for the input and the learning curves, any game can be regarded as quick to adapt, open to play, fast to entertain. Your own experience even supports this, as the mighty pen and the serene paper would be the only items ever needed to devise a game, since your fascination for fantasy began. A map to be drawn, a system to be constructed, and the rest is the story. However incomprehensible the map would be; however complicated the system would be; and however complex the story would be.
Yes. The story of the game. If it is devoid of the possibility to capture one’s imagination to create the worlds that are fictional, fantastical, impossible, then it is only a game to win a certain condition it is designed with. An arcade game of points, a reflex-testing game of time, a luck-based game of chances.
So, you have been using the label of arcade for this game, but only as a furious reaction. You do know that it could have been a great simulation, but falling from the sky of that ideal. You do not share such anger when a pinball machine is considered, as it requires great skills, and its smallest yet unknown mechanics can be empirically learned with extensive practice, therefore its chance-based side can be minimised, thus it is also a remarkable design. But this game, far from a mechanical-machine, with incredible amount of inputs, with its admirable learning-time, cannot even be considered as a comparison to an arcade; despite these facts, you accuse it of being one. It had all the potential, then it exhausted its own hydrogen, burned out of existence into a black hole.
But? You are playing it. While still holding the accusation for it not being a simulation.
Then what do you mean by simulation?
Your own confusion in your perspective for the game may very well come from the identification of the concept. It is certain that you rushed into making the arguments in the most vague way as you tried to cope with the frustration you have. Now, the focus is on the map. The simulation is the flow of the history of the entities over a certain time period, and over that map.
The temporal and the spatial variables are visibly defined, and the functions of the simulation work accordingly, with the inputs it receives during the course of the run, providing the outputs as the game progresses. Disregarding the specific errors as shortcomings, the map represents the physical limits of the entities in the game, and the borders of these realms vary by the time, through those decisions the simulation makes. The string and the graphical functions provide the context, and the result is interpreted as the history of populations over the globe.
Thus the globe enters the equation. It is a simulation, contrary to your counter-claim for this game, and its globe is a pseudo-Mercator projection of the earth. The topography, again disregarding its errors as shortcomings, reflects the world. Assume it as the real. The real is divided into political entities and into provinces, representing the population centres of the realms, providing the production to the tags that are simulated, including the one that is played. The produced materials are abstracted as the goods, and they are distributed over the provinces. They do have a value, reflected as the worth of trading those commodities. The provinces also provide the manpower, and only to be used as the military might of the realms they belong to. Therefore, the distribution includes a variation in the advantages of the provinces.
When the globe is assumed as the real, and the provinces along with the realms are given tag-names by the outputs of real string functions with the temporal input of 10 November 1444, the expected outcome is the realistic simulation of those tags, interacting with each other. That is the main argument of the key, which is held by the map, which provides the simulation. The function outputs only one solution-point at that input of the time. That output-point can be assumed as the real. Then the model-process is started, and it becomes not the real, but the realistic.
This was said before, as the real process cannot be expected from the simulation by definition. Moreover, the mathematical models inherently use assumptions, be it simplifications or abstractions. Their output can be expected to be only close to the real, so, the realistic, and the minimisation of this discrepancy depends on the quality of those assumptions over the variables, constants, functions. In the case of the subject at hand, the amount of variables to be modelled is immense considering an individual, and this simulation is based on entire populations beyond the individual. Besides, the motivation behind modelling a simulation for a real process can vary based on the questions it starts with, therefore the possibilities are endless; on the other hand, when the real process is known by all its data points and functions, then the mathematical model would become pointless, as the model will solve the exact equation, giving the exact output that is already known. Still, such a model is not entirely redundant, as it provides the output of the process but to be used as inputs in another process.
Considering the given example of Direct Numerical Simulation of the flow of fluid particles, which outputs the complete-scale data of the flow but based on its assumptions, becomes pointless if the process is already known. But the outputs of flow velocity, pressure, temperature, density, and over them the momentum and the energy are used to calculate other systems of mechanisms, as they are required to calculate the force, the moment, the energy consumption, and many more, in any other process they are required to.
In the case of the history of populations, the output data is already known by the historical records. The real process is the interaction of populations over a certain period of time, so the history. However, historical data is lacking, imperfect, incomplete, unattested, even falsified, mystified, fantasised, and therefore such simulations can probably be used to remedy this deficiency in the knowledge. Moreover, the perspective of the simulation of this game, as said before, is beyond the skies, thus it depicts the real process with certain abstractions for a simplified approach, on top of its necessary assumptions due to the insufficient data. The entities are entire realms, reduced into numbers.
At this point enters the game aspect. Again, the temporal input is set as 10 November 1444, and compared to past ten-to-twenty thousand years, relatively more data is available on the date, and also for the period it proceeds into. As soon as the unpause is hit, then it becomes fictional, despite the quality of the mathematical model, and exactly because of that model together with its assumptions. It does incorporate the scripted-events, but also the random events in pulse- and regular-functions, by pseudo-random number generator. This is another necessity, as the model requires artificial inputs to proceed, because the real process, so the interaction of populations, is completely simplified into warfare. When the power for warfare between the code-tags is balanced, as the code will calculate to approach that limit, the simulation will remain dormant. Either by scripted-, or by pseudo-randomised-events, the equilibrium is broken, and the code proceeds to achieve that point once again. Now, the main problems are visible in that key held by the map providing the simulation.
A new question is born. You are burning in the eternal flame of the curiosity. The key; what is it?
Despite your rumbling complaints, this game is a grand strategy, with strong simulation elements. Its code proceeds linearly over the functions for the tags, but utilises multiple-cores as the need arises, due to the large number of entities it controls. All descriptions show that your actual sentiment towards this game is not hatred. It is not that you are playing this game despite your hatred.
Maybe not hatred. So, what? Why are you playing this game? And, if not hatred, you are still frustrated with it; however, all such definitions, descriptions, analyses, criticisms, they may reflect actually your respect, and perhaps… No, do not go into that. Focus. Now.
You are still agitated by this game, and specifically due to its end-results, the outputs, the decisions its code makes.
Focus. Now.
The icon is already clicked twice, the Play is clicked on the launcher, the Load is clicked on the waiting-room of the opening-screen, and the game starts.
Hello ottos. Told you to not look with such concerned eyes. Look somewhere else. Ottos are worried.
Austria-tag is once again eligible for rivalry. But as the vassal-count reaches five (5), the tag is then yet again not eligible for rivalry. Yes, that is what referred as the fall of the code.
The marches, hisn kayfa, crimea, bosnia, shirvan, and at last circassia; all relatively small tags, yet their combined power is a formidable threshold for the code in its calculations to determine the might of any tag it opposes. That is the reason why the poland-lithuania tag never early-cb’s the muscovy-tag, or england-tag never pre-emptive-cb’s the france-tag, and no tag bothers with the denmark-tag in the beginning. Though the situation changes for the tags of the flower wars or maya-unification-wars, due to the high liberty desires of the vassals in the Americas.
On the other hand, the code never keeps such subjects, and it annexes all whenever it is possible. It is understandable, but only if the main objective of the code is to reduce the number of tags to ease on the calculations, but this serves counter-productive for its survival, by reducing the war targets. The player, however, does not have such concerns, but desperately needs to control the war-declaration-roulette of the code. Any weakness will be regarded as the right time for the code to initiate an attack, and abiding the empirical data based on experience and heavily skewed by the confirmation bias, the code will primarily target the player.
Allies do not provide such a protection, as they are also controlled by the code but independent, and thus they fall quickly. Being in debt, being in war with others, having low diplo-rep as defender, and especially deteriorated relations will cause them betray at any time, if not checked regularly. Vassals-marches do not have such problems. They will protect against the surge of aggressive decisions of the code, owing to the multiple targets in case of an attack, and the extra force limit they provide. Naturally, only when they are loyal, and when there is not a scripted-event. Good relations certainly help, but loyalty of the subjects is determined mostly by the might of the overlord – the relative power. The player usually goes large-and-wide in a short period, therefore this will not be problematic. The case of the timurids is the prime example of the disaster-cases; as starting with gigantic vassals, their situation is critical in that regard.
The topic of vassals, allies, and relations do require further discussions, though these details can be covered later; as the player, you have now five (5) marches, and there are two (2) more guarantees-allies for vassalisation. The code already falls before such a power. And then, a new era begins.
Fortunate side of the new era means, there is another institution to be embraced, which is acquired by the code arguably faster, quicker, earlier than the player in most cases. It does not matter as the institution propagates slower in regions other than the europa-continent, since the human-player is always capable of force-spawning it, when there is need to be. It does not matter, yes, but it is absolutely no concern now, as the player is the ottos.
The ottos have a plethora of advantages, and it keeps piling up. In the case of institutions, it may also seem as advantageous while being a tag on the europa-continent. This is not actually a unique advantage, as that is shared by many other tags on that piece of land, arbitrarily defined as a continent, hundreds of years ago, first by Anaximandros, then repeated by Herodotos (ba dum tss - nice one filcat, hilarious. sigh.). Moreover, the ottos are a muslim-tag on that continent; the religion provides only a small bonus on the tech-costs, and only while having the high legalism side of it. But since the institutions are generally spawned among the christian-tags, of which the relations are generally low with the muslim-tags, the propagation is further slowed down, thus a disadvantage.
In the case of an otto-run by converting to a different religion to mitigate this, the ottos would lose all the advantages of its government. Running a catholic-otto-tag might provide some interesting moments, few mediocre bonuses including institutions, and perhaps allows to become the emperor of the holy roman empire, but the why? question for such ambitions always enjoys the laughter. These sort of decisions ultimately fall behind the loss of already-present advantages regarding the events its government has, which requires a muslim-otto-tag.
Moving on. When the institutions are considered, the ottos are not exactly at an advantageous place. With the expansion of the game that is called the emperor, the catholic-tags even received an enormous advantage, as Cardinals Spread Institutions. Thus, the ottos are in clear disadvantage, as the relative large-size will further slow it down.
And, that is fine. In fact, it is favourable. It is even better, that the code-tags will embrace it before the player-ottos. For the player-ottos, it is not a concern at all. The reason is that any run with this tag can actually reach the saturation level before the game even properly begins. The objective is to prevent this, while running in tranquillity. With each institution, the gap between the player-ottos and the code can be mitigated, thus more rivals can emerge.
Yes, the ottos are that powerful.
They start powerful, they have a large realm, and they are able to capture the city at the beginning before any of the code-tags with little concern and loss. Their units, as anatolian-tech group, have also statistically higher performance than the others, but only for a certain period, only at the beginning. Their national-ideas are also advantageous, starting with higher military-discipline, and acquiring core-cost-reduction, force limit, cavalry combat capability, faster manpower recovery, and additional bonus on tax and trade, as well as high tolerance on the run. They have a unique government, allowing to choose among three candidates for an heir. They do not have dynastic problems too, as being a muslim-tag, which is one of the most incomprehensible design choices of the game. But, whatever.
Yet, all such advantages of the ottos are marginal. None is comparable to what france-tag gets, nor the muscovy-tag has, not on par with the england-tag, and never can be comparable to what the castile-tag receives as advantages. The ming, the mughals, the vijayanagar, the inca, the butua, the korea, the shogun-ashikaga, the hre-austria, the portugal-tag, nor the holland-netherlands-tag; no need to even mention about the prussia-tag; these are far above in terms of advantages than what the ottos have.
Then, {how it is that the ottos are this much powerful}, some may ask. {They always bulldoze everywhere, under the control of the code}, some may even complain.
Well, the code will always have more advantages than the human-player, so that complaint is an incomprehensible claim, a null argument, a pointless debate. The code-ottos naturally can be a serious challenge against the player, as it will also have the lucky-nation-factors, and being the code, it will always be faster in its calculations, and it will always be more vigilant, infinitely-patient, ever-present. But, {how in general}, one may still insist on asking. Yes, agreed, the ottos are so powerful in the game. But not for the above reasons.
---
First comes the quality of the simulation. The game operates in the real world, runs on the real geography, proceeds over the continents of the real topography. The provinces are distributed over the lands, and they are assigned with trade goods accordingly, to reflect the major trade-production-agricultural aspect of the real world. It may have low precision due to the simplified provincial borders, it does have problems due to accuracy of the provinces and their goods, it certainly has assumptions to cover for the insufficient data. Regardless, the simulation tries to reflect the political situation of the mid-fifteenth century at the beginning, and the according economical flow of the meta-product. In this situation, the products-goods that are highly valued by the entities of the europa-continent are coming from the asia-continent, and specifically, the persia-, the india-, and the china-subcontinents.
Then comes the new era.
The crusades in the previous hundreds of years were primarily motivated by the loss of power in the lands of the former Roman Empire, targeting the regions in Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Mesopotamia. This flow also occurred on the other end of the continent, in the lands of Iberia. The religious differences were certainly used as the means of consolidating the power to rally masses against the new entities that acquired those lands by endless, pointless, meaningless wars, but the main motivation behind the flow was the economic loss of the ruling class, forcing the lower classes into endless, pointless, meaningless wars to regain the control of those lands. It was to re-acquire the control on the commodities and the riches they brought from those routes going through those lands. In simplistic terms, to control the trade from Asia and Africa.
But the war for hundred years wrecked the continent and the isles; the rebellion of Engelbrekt shook the Kalmar Union; the crusader league by Hunyadi János was decisively defeated. The crusades failed in the east, and the Roman Empire collapsed with the conquest of the city by the Ottomans. The crusades in the west could not go further after the conquest of Qurtuba – Qordoba, but preparations ensued for Garnatah – Granada. In the north-east, the Mongol rule disintegrated into several khanates, and the trade routes became unaffordable adventures for the merchant classes. The northern trade routes were controlled by the Novgorod, but the principalities consolidated around the Muscovy, opposing the crusader orders. The shortage of precious metals hit the proto-economy of the ruling classes. The proto-capitalist classes of the merchant-powers in the Mediterranean were barely able to protect their remaining privileges over the trade, then controlled completely by the Mamluks in Egypt and the Ottomans in Anatolia and Balkans.
Diogo Cão and Bartolomeu Dias already sailed from Portugal to further south of the Africa, with the latter reaching the Cabo das Tormentas in 1488, later renamed as Cabo da Boa Esperança – Cape of Good Hope. But a merchant named Cristoffa Corombo of Genoa had another ambition. He visited various courts, petitioned to gain support for his idea, to sail further west in order to reach the India and the China. In his mind, that would facilitate establishing another route of trade, so that the merchants could benefit more without the necessity to negotiate with the Mamluks, the Ottomans, and the various Mongol remnant-khanates. And in his mind again, perhaps the new routes would provide more riches, so that Jerusalem could be saved.
With such a motivation, he acquired the resources from the crowns of Castile and Aragon, thus began his journey, and made the entry to his journal on 12 October 1492, upon spotting some islands. He insisted that they found the ends of Asia, and after that arrived on a larger island. He claimed it was Japan, and the sea they were sailing was the Sea of China.
The islands were The Bahamas and Cuba.
Return from the historical records to the simulation of the game. Colonialism has been born. The bloodshed, the tragedy, the horror of warfare will spread around the entire world.
And remembering the question, how; how it is that the otto-tag is such powerful. It is a powerful tag when the code controls it, and manages to be a challenge. When the player is the ottos, then the power in question is significantly beyond many other tags.
It is already answered.
It is powerful, such that it causes to question, or even to complain about it, but it is due to the fact that the game is designed as a simulation on the real world map, and the otto-tag is on Balkans and Anatolia. The reason is not all the advantages of the ottos as listed before; it is, where they are.
The otto-tag already has the control of the majority of the trade routes from the persia-, the india-, and the china-subcontinents. If the complaints on its power are too much, to the point of considering that power should be reduced in terms of military capability, or national-ideas, or missions, none will work. Those are, yes, statistical advantages, but trivial. One has to take out the otto-tag from the simulation in order to reduce that power. Remove the ottos, and putbyza – roman-empire-tag instead. It will thrive on those lands. Put cilli-tag instead. It will be the number-one in the list of great powers. Or no need for such replacements; play as theodoro-tag, or the-knights-of-the-rhodes-tag, or candar-tag, or aq-tag, or even provence-tag, and jump to Anatolia, Syria, Egypt. It is inevitable to become the most powerful when playing on those lands, as the game is simulating the real world, and the geography is supported by the economic-political parameters of its simulation design.
As such, the ottos do not actually need to embrace Colonialism. Nominally, it is not a necessity, but the game will force it nevertheless, through automatic propagation by design, or maybe a seriously-disastrous-campaign happens, and the tech-costs become unbearable, so it is embraced by the player right away.
That is the clear, the unique, and the greatest advantage of the otto-tag. Not the few statistical bonuses and favourable events, but primarily by already ruling over the Balkans and the Anatolia, with a large realm, relatively richer, present in multiple trade-nodes, able to reach and control the trade from Persia, India, and China.
The code does not have such parameters in its consideration, as it only sees the statistical advantages, waypoints instead of map, and events to prompt its calculations. When controlled by the player, the might of any tag is indisputable. Yet, by the geography, so the world of the simulation, the design of the map, even the code-ottos can become a terrifying tag against the player, if not properly dealt with. That is also the reason for how the mughals-tag; or the kongo-tag, or any other africa-tag; or the malwa-tag, or any other india-subcontinent-tag; or the ming-tag, or any other china-subcontinent-tag; or the aztec-tag, or any other americas-tag can become the most powerful of all. They are already on the richest parts of the world, as modelled by the simulation.
And also, the mamluks.
---
Oh, right.
The roman-empire-tag, the venice-tag, the serbia-tag, the karaman-tag; these are the procedural checkpoints of a standard otto-run.
Then following the list it is, well, naturally…
Distracted by the austria-hungary-poland-lithuania-danzig-landshut-ingolstadt war but now is the time. Perma-claims are not there, but some claims were already given by the estate mission before that war.
After the death of the first turbo-ruler the 16-monarch mehmed, the 12-monarch selim assumed the power, and this succession defaulted the accumulated legalism towards a lower point. A couple of events, and it is about -40 towards the mysticism. The war declaration will push it further by -16, thus it will be lower than -50. Thus a jafari scholar from the march shirvan-tag can be also invited, providing additional 10% shock-damage for the armies.
As the run proceeds back on its course of relaxed nature, the music is already decided upon for peaceful melody. Well then, all is set.
Hello, mamluks.
[*]
[*] Day O, from the album Calypso, by Harry Belafonte (1956)
Originally a folk song; lyrics adapted by Irving Louis Burgie (Lord Burgess) and William Attaway; Jamaican version has "(...) six hand (...)" instead of "(...) six foot (...)", as well as other localisations; refer to live performance by Harry Belafonte.
Edit 28.06.2024: Fixed the broken link. Corrected grammatical, formatting, semantic, factual mistakes. Adjusted image visual-sizes. Corrected the link.
Your own classification pulses the glowing problems of the game, yet you are playing it still without knowing why. The class, the type, the genre, of this game you are insisting on launching again and again and more, escapes the definitions you can provide, yet you are not even able to get out of your own explanations in the ever-convoluted details. Slowing down the words, mind-jumping over the concepts, lucid-streaming of the subjects, neither do they help. Focus. Now.
The map holds the key. The key to the simulation is the time as it flows. The game of the strategy comes with the simulation of the details it depicts.
And then there you are; you were screaming that it is not a simulation, it can never be considered as such any more, and with the never-ending questions by each aspect, you concluded that it is an arcade game. The illusion was broken into pieces, and you are looking through the screen that does not reflect any light from any source on any object any more. An arcade, and the term is not even applicable for such a complex software.
The actual meaning of the arcade is an area within a covered structure, and constituting shops of various kinds. The arcade game comes from the convenience of the practice, evolving into the language, that such game-machines being located at such places. The entertainment value is considered the main parameter for the design of these, with minimised input requirements to play and minimised time to learn how to run any session of it.
However, owing to the relative natures of requirements for the input and the learning curves, any game can be regarded as quick to adapt, open to play, fast to entertain. Your own experience even supports this, as the mighty pen and the serene paper would be the only items ever needed to devise a game, since your fascination for fantasy began. A map to be drawn, a system to be constructed, and the rest is the story. However incomprehensible the map would be; however complicated the system would be; and however complex the story would be.
Yes. The story of the game. If it is devoid of the possibility to capture one’s imagination to create the worlds that are fictional, fantastical, impossible, then it is only a game to win a certain condition it is designed with. An arcade game of points, a reflex-testing game of time, a luck-based game of chances.
So, you have been using the label of arcade for this game, but only as a furious reaction. You do know that it could have been a great simulation, but falling from the sky of that ideal. You do not share such anger when a pinball machine is considered, as it requires great skills, and its smallest yet unknown mechanics can be empirically learned with extensive practice, therefore its chance-based side can be minimised, thus it is also a remarkable design. But this game, far from a mechanical-machine, with incredible amount of inputs, with its admirable learning-time, cannot even be considered as a comparison to an arcade; despite these facts, you accuse it of being one. It had all the potential, then it exhausted its own hydrogen, burned out of existence into a black hole.
But? You are playing it. While still holding the accusation for it not being a simulation.
Then what do you mean by simulation?
Your own confusion in your perspective for the game may very well come from the identification of the concept. It is certain that you rushed into making the arguments in the most vague way as you tried to cope with the frustration you have. Now, the focus is on the map. The simulation is the flow of the history of the entities over a certain time period, and over that map.
The temporal and the spatial variables are visibly defined, and the functions of the simulation work accordingly, with the inputs it receives during the course of the run, providing the outputs as the game progresses. Disregarding the specific errors as shortcomings, the map represents the physical limits of the entities in the game, and the borders of these realms vary by the time, through those decisions the simulation makes. The string and the graphical functions provide the context, and the result is interpreted as the history of populations over the globe.
Thus the globe enters the equation. It is a simulation, contrary to your counter-claim for this game, and its globe is a pseudo-Mercator projection of the earth. The topography, again disregarding its errors as shortcomings, reflects the world. Assume it as the real. The real is divided into political entities and into provinces, representing the population centres of the realms, providing the production to the tags that are simulated, including the one that is played. The produced materials are abstracted as the goods, and they are distributed over the provinces. They do have a value, reflected as the worth of trading those commodities. The provinces also provide the manpower, and only to be used as the military might of the realms they belong to. Therefore, the distribution includes a variation in the advantages of the provinces.
When the globe is assumed as the real, and the provinces along with the realms are given tag-names by the outputs of real string functions with the temporal input of 10 November 1444, the expected outcome is the realistic simulation of those tags, interacting with each other. That is the main argument of the key, which is held by the map, which provides the simulation. The function outputs only one solution-point at that input of the time. That output-point can be assumed as the real. Then the model-process is started, and it becomes not the real, but the realistic.
This was said before, as the real process cannot be expected from the simulation by definition. Moreover, the mathematical models inherently use assumptions, be it simplifications or abstractions. Their output can be expected to be only close to the real, so, the realistic, and the minimisation of this discrepancy depends on the quality of those assumptions over the variables, constants, functions. In the case of the subject at hand, the amount of variables to be modelled is immense considering an individual, and this simulation is based on entire populations beyond the individual. Besides, the motivation behind modelling a simulation for a real process can vary based on the questions it starts with, therefore the possibilities are endless; on the other hand, when the real process is known by all its data points and functions, then the mathematical model would become pointless, as the model will solve the exact equation, giving the exact output that is already known. Still, such a model is not entirely redundant, as it provides the output of the process but to be used as inputs in another process.
Considering the given example of Direct Numerical Simulation of the flow of fluid particles, which outputs the complete-scale data of the flow but based on its assumptions, becomes pointless if the process is already known. But the outputs of flow velocity, pressure, temperature, density, and over them the momentum and the energy are used to calculate other systems of mechanisms, as they are required to calculate the force, the moment, the energy consumption, and many more, in any other process they are required to.
In the case of the history of populations, the output data is already known by the historical records. The real process is the interaction of populations over a certain period of time, so the history. However, historical data is lacking, imperfect, incomplete, unattested, even falsified, mystified, fantasised, and therefore such simulations can probably be used to remedy this deficiency in the knowledge. Moreover, the perspective of the simulation of this game, as said before, is beyond the skies, thus it depicts the real process with certain abstractions for a simplified approach, on top of its necessary assumptions due to the insufficient data. The entities are entire realms, reduced into numbers.
At this point enters the game aspect. Again, the temporal input is set as 10 November 1444, and compared to past ten-to-twenty thousand years, relatively more data is available on the date, and also for the period it proceeds into. As soon as the unpause is hit, then it becomes fictional, despite the quality of the mathematical model, and exactly because of that model together with its assumptions. It does incorporate the scripted-events, but also the random events in pulse- and regular-functions, by pseudo-random number generator. This is another necessity, as the model requires artificial inputs to proceed, because the real process, so the interaction of populations, is completely simplified into warfare. When the power for warfare between the code-tags is balanced, as the code will calculate to approach that limit, the simulation will remain dormant. Either by scripted-, or by pseudo-randomised-events, the equilibrium is broken, and the code proceeds to achieve that point once again. Now, the main problems are visible in that key held by the map providing the simulation.
A new question is born. You are burning in the eternal flame of the curiosity. The key; what is it?
Despite your rumbling complaints, this game is a grand strategy, with strong simulation elements. Its code proceeds linearly over the functions for the tags, but utilises multiple-cores as the need arises, due to the large number of entities it controls. All descriptions show that your actual sentiment towards this game is not hatred. It is not that you are playing this game despite your hatred.
Maybe not hatred. So, what? Why are you playing this game? And, if not hatred, you are still frustrated with it; however, all such definitions, descriptions, analyses, criticisms, they may reflect actually your respect, and perhaps… No, do not go into that. Focus. Now.
You are still agitated by this game, and specifically due to its end-results, the outputs, the decisions its code makes.
Focus. Now.
The icon is already clicked twice, the Play is clicked on the launcher, the Load is clicked on the waiting-room of the opening-screen, and the game starts.
CHAPTER IX
Hello ottos. Told you to not look with such concerned eyes. Look somewhere else. Ottos are worried.
Austria-tag is once again eligible for rivalry. But as the vassal-count reaches five (5), the tag is then yet again not eligible for rivalry. Yes, that is what referred as the fall of the code.
The marches, hisn kayfa, crimea, bosnia, shirvan, and at last circassia; all relatively small tags, yet their combined power is a formidable threshold for the code in its calculations to determine the might of any tag it opposes. That is the reason why the poland-lithuania tag never early-cb’s the muscovy-tag, or england-tag never pre-emptive-cb’s the france-tag, and no tag bothers with the denmark-tag in the beginning. Though the situation changes for the tags of the flower wars or maya-unification-wars, due to the high liberty desires of the vassals in the Americas.
On the other hand, the code never keeps such subjects, and it annexes all whenever it is possible. It is understandable, but only if the main objective of the code is to reduce the number of tags to ease on the calculations, but this serves counter-productive for its survival, by reducing the war targets. The player, however, does not have such concerns, but desperately needs to control the war-declaration-roulette of the code. Any weakness will be regarded as the right time for the code to initiate an attack, and abiding the empirical data based on experience and heavily skewed by the confirmation bias, the code will primarily target the player.
Allies do not provide such a protection, as they are also controlled by the code but independent, and thus they fall quickly. Being in debt, being in war with others, having low diplo-rep as defender, and especially deteriorated relations will cause them betray at any time, if not checked regularly. Vassals-marches do not have such problems. They will protect against the surge of aggressive decisions of the code, owing to the multiple targets in case of an attack, and the extra force limit they provide. Naturally, only when they are loyal, and when there is not a scripted-event. Good relations certainly help, but loyalty of the subjects is determined mostly by the might of the overlord – the relative power. The player usually goes large-and-wide in a short period, therefore this will not be problematic. The case of the timurids is the prime example of the disaster-cases; as starting with gigantic vassals, their situation is critical in that regard.
The topic of vassals, allies, and relations do require further discussions, though these details can be covered later; as the player, you have now five (5) marches, and there are two (2) more guarantees-allies for vassalisation. The code already falls before such a power. And then, a new era begins.
Fortunate side of the new era means, there is another institution to be embraced, which is acquired by the code arguably faster, quicker, earlier than the player in most cases. It does not matter as the institution propagates slower in regions other than the europa-continent, since the human-player is always capable of force-spawning it, when there is need to be. It does not matter, yes, but it is absolutely no concern now, as the player is the ottos.
The ottos have a plethora of advantages, and it keeps piling up. In the case of institutions, it may also seem as advantageous while being a tag on the europa-continent. This is not actually a unique advantage, as that is shared by many other tags on that piece of land, arbitrarily defined as a continent, hundreds of years ago, first by Anaximandros, then repeated by Herodotos (ba dum tss - nice one filcat, hilarious. sigh.). Moreover, the ottos are a muslim-tag on that continent; the religion provides only a small bonus on the tech-costs, and only while having the high legalism side of it. But since the institutions are generally spawned among the christian-tags, of which the relations are generally low with the muslim-tags, the propagation is further slowed down, thus a disadvantage.
In the case of an otto-run by converting to a different religion to mitigate this, the ottos would lose all the advantages of its government. Running a catholic-otto-tag might provide some interesting moments, few mediocre bonuses including institutions, and perhaps allows to become the emperor of the holy roman empire, but the why? question for such ambitions always enjoys the laughter. These sort of decisions ultimately fall behind the loss of already-present advantages regarding the events its government has, which requires a muslim-otto-tag.
Moving on. When the institutions are considered, the ottos are not exactly at an advantageous place. With the expansion of the game that is called the emperor, the catholic-tags even received an enormous advantage, as Cardinals Spread Institutions. Thus, the ottos are in clear disadvantage, as the relative large-size will further slow it down.
And, that is fine. In fact, it is favourable. It is even better, that the code-tags will embrace it before the player-ottos. For the player-ottos, it is not a concern at all. The reason is that any run with this tag can actually reach the saturation level before the game even properly begins. The objective is to prevent this, while running in tranquillity. With each institution, the gap between the player-ottos and the code can be mitigated, thus more rivals can emerge.
Yes, the ottos are that powerful.
They start powerful, they have a large realm, and they are able to capture the city at the beginning before any of the code-tags with little concern and loss. Their units, as anatolian-tech group, have also statistically higher performance than the others, but only for a certain period, only at the beginning. Their national-ideas are also advantageous, starting with higher military-discipline, and acquiring core-cost-reduction, force limit, cavalry combat capability, faster manpower recovery, and additional bonus on tax and trade, as well as high tolerance on the run. They have a unique government, allowing to choose among three candidates for an heir. They do not have dynastic problems too, as being a muslim-tag, which is one of the most incomprehensible design choices of the game. But, whatever.
Yet, all such advantages of the ottos are marginal. None is comparable to what france-tag gets, nor the muscovy-tag has, not on par with the england-tag, and never can be comparable to what the castile-tag receives as advantages. The ming, the mughals, the vijayanagar, the inca, the butua, the korea, the shogun-ashikaga, the hre-austria, the portugal-tag, nor the holland-netherlands-tag; no need to even mention about the prussia-tag; these are far above in terms of advantages than what the ottos have.
Then, {how it is that the ottos are this much powerful}, some may ask. {They always bulldoze everywhere, under the control of the code}, some may even complain.
Well, the code will always have more advantages than the human-player, so that complaint is an incomprehensible claim, a null argument, a pointless debate. The code-ottos naturally can be a serious challenge against the player, as it will also have the lucky-nation-factors, and being the code, it will always be faster in its calculations, and it will always be more vigilant, infinitely-patient, ever-present. But, {how in general}, one may still insist on asking. Yes, agreed, the ottos are so powerful in the game. But not for the above reasons.
---
First comes the quality of the simulation. The game operates in the real world, runs on the real geography, proceeds over the continents of the real topography. The provinces are distributed over the lands, and they are assigned with trade goods accordingly, to reflect the major trade-production-agricultural aspect of the real world. It may have low precision due to the simplified provincial borders, it does have problems due to accuracy of the provinces and their goods, it certainly has assumptions to cover for the insufficient data. Regardless, the simulation tries to reflect the political situation of the mid-fifteenth century at the beginning, and the according economical flow of the meta-product. In this situation, the products-goods that are highly valued by the entities of the europa-continent are coming from the asia-continent, and specifically, the persia-, the india-, and the china-subcontinents.
Then comes the new era.
The crusades in the previous hundreds of years were primarily motivated by the loss of power in the lands of the former Roman Empire, targeting the regions in Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Mesopotamia. This flow also occurred on the other end of the continent, in the lands of Iberia. The religious differences were certainly used as the means of consolidating the power to rally masses against the new entities that acquired those lands by endless, pointless, meaningless wars, but the main motivation behind the flow was the economic loss of the ruling class, forcing the lower classes into endless, pointless, meaningless wars to regain the control of those lands. It was to re-acquire the control on the commodities and the riches they brought from those routes going through those lands. In simplistic terms, to control the trade from Asia and Africa.
But the war for hundred years wrecked the continent and the isles; the rebellion of Engelbrekt shook the Kalmar Union; the crusader league by Hunyadi János was decisively defeated. The crusades failed in the east, and the Roman Empire collapsed with the conquest of the city by the Ottomans. The crusades in the west could not go further after the conquest of Qurtuba – Qordoba, but preparations ensued for Garnatah – Granada. In the north-east, the Mongol rule disintegrated into several khanates, and the trade routes became unaffordable adventures for the merchant classes. The northern trade routes were controlled by the Novgorod, but the principalities consolidated around the Muscovy, opposing the crusader orders. The shortage of precious metals hit the proto-economy of the ruling classes. The proto-capitalist classes of the merchant-powers in the Mediterranean were barely able to protect their remaining privileges over the trade, then controlled completely by the Mamluks in Egypt and the Ottomans in Anatolia and Balkans.
***
Diogo Cão and Bartolomeu Dias already sailed from Portugal to further south of the Africa, with the latter reaching the Cabo das Tormentas in 1488, later renamed as Cabo da Boa Esperança – Cape of Good Hope. But a merchant named Cristoffa Corombo of Genoa had another ambition. He visited various courts, petitioned to gain support for his idea, to sail further west in order to reach the India and the China. In his mind, that would facilitate establishing another route of trade, so that the merchants could benefit more without the necessity to negotiate with the Mamluks, the Ottomans, and the various Mongol remnant-khanates. And in his mind again, perhaps the new routes would provide more riches, so that Jerusalem could be saved.
With such a motivation, he acquired the resources from the crowns of Castile and Aragon, thus began his journey, and made the entry to his journal on 12 October 1492, upon spotting some islands. He insisted that they found the ends of Asia, and after that arrived on a larger island. He claimed it was Japan, and the sea they were sailing was the Sea of China.
The islands were The Bahamas and Cuba.
***
Return from the historical records to the simulation of the game. Colonialism has been born. The bloodshed, the tragedy, the horror of warfare will spread around the entire world.
And remembering the question, how; how it is that the otto-tag is such powerful. It is a powerful tag when the code controls it, and manages to be a challenge. When the player is the ottos, then the power in question is significantly beyond many other tags.
It is already answered.
It is powerful, such that it causes to question, or even to complain about it, but it is due to the fact that the game is designed as a simulation on the real world map, and the otto-tag is on Balkans and Anatolia. The reason is not all the advantages of the ottos as listed before; it is, where they are.
The otto-tag already has the control of the majority of the trade routes from the persia-, the india-, and the china-subcontinents. If the complaints on its power are too much, to the point of considering that power should be reduced in terms of military capability, or national-ideas, or missions, none will work. Those are, yes, statistical advantages, but trivial. One has to take out the otto-tag from the simulation in order to reduce that power. Remove the ottos, and put
As such, the ottos do not actually need to embrace Colonialism. Nominally, it is not a necessity, but the game will force it nevertheless, through automatic propagation by design, or maybe a seriously-disastrous-campaign happens, and the tech-costs become unbearable, so it is embraced by the player right away.
That is the clear, the unique, and the greatest advantage of the otto-tag. Not the few statistical bonuses and favourable events, but primarily by already ruling over the Balkans and the Anatolia, with a large realm, relatively richer, present in multiple trade-nodes, able to reach and control the trade from Persia, India, and China.
The code does not have such parameters in its consideration, as it only sees the statistical advantages, waypoints instead of map, and events to prompt its calculations. When controlled by the player, the might of any tag is indisputable. Yet, by the geography, so the world of the simulation, the design of the map, even the code-ottos can become a terrifying tag against the player, if not properly dealt with. That is also the reason for how the mughals-tag; or the kongo-tag, or any other africa-tag; or the malwa-tag, or any other india-subcontinent-tag; or the ming-tag, or any other china-subcontinent-tag; or the aztec-tag, or any other americas-tag can become the most powerful of all. They are already on the richest parts of the world, as modelled by the simulation.
And also, the mamluks.
---
Oh, right.
The roman-empire-tag, the venice-tag, the serbia-tag, the karaman-tag; these are the procedural checkpoints of a standard otto-run.
Then following the list it is, well, naturally…
Distracted by the austria-hungary-poland-lithuania-danzig-landshut-ingolstadt war but now is the time. Perma-claims are not there, but some claims were already given by the estate mission before that war.
After the death of the first turbo-ruler the 16-monarch mehmed, the 12-monarch selim assumed the power, and this succession defaulted the accumulated legalism towards a lower point. A couple of events, and it is about -40 towards the mysticism. The war declaration will push it further by -16, thus it will be lower than -50. Thus a jafari scholar from the march shirvan-tag can be also invited, providing additional 10% shock-damage for the armies.
As the run proceeds back on its course of relaxed nature, the music is already decided upon for peaceful melody. Well then, all is set.
Hello, mamluks.
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[*] Day O, from the album Calypso, by Harry Belafonte (1956)
Originally a folk song; lyrics adapted by Irving Louis Burgie (Lord Burgess) and William Attaway; Jamaican version has "(...) six hand (...)" instead of "(...) six foot (...)", as well as other localisations; refer to live performance by Harry Belafonte.
Edit 28.06.2024: Fixed the broken link. Corrected grammatical, formatting, semantic, factual mistakes. Adjusted image visual-sizes. Corrected the link.
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Indeed, there is occasionally historical railroading (although this can be turned off).
The Ottomans have a new enemy in the form of the growing Austrians...
The Ottomans have a new enemy in the form of the growing Austrians...
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You are getting closer, but only for a part of it. Still; good, very good.
Errr... Not exactly. Agreed that it would be interesting, and it is the hope. Unfortunately, and on the contrary, already falling down, the code is.
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Book I - Chapter X
System Warning – The Sentry is breached
The hope failed, collapsed under the heavy dullness of continuous obscurity, and turned into the sorrowing agony. The night did not pass with a peaceful silence, and the day brings the colourless burden. The light dashes through the cumuli, delivering the warmth but in abruptly short frequencies. The difference in the temperature affects the pressure basins, and the streets are filled with unstoppable winds. It lasts until the end, and now the setting of the sun says farewell, once again, leaving the skies to the dominion of the reticent night.
At least the names of the parameters are defined in the gruesome steps of the last attempt for focusing the scope down on the associated questions. But the core one is still the same: Why you are playing this game, it is unknown, and you are still fighting through the countless paths leading to it.
The key.
An expert system.
The equations, the functions, the system; the code has to be able to cope with the most of the possible inputs regarding the problem. Furthermore, its outputs has to resemble the human outputs. That is the key for the designer to consider for the development of the simulation, in order to reflect the behaviour of the process, and the player interacts with the game, so the process is the human-player. An expert system, operating as a knowledge-based domain, utilising many if not all possibility-functions to address the inputs it receives, thus copying or imitating else approaching to the behaviour of the real-process.
In technical terms, it is actually a basic form of artificial intelligence.
Is that the ideal, or did you confuse it in your vague rationale while mind-jumping?
No, whether the system is an artificial intelligence or not, you did not actually define the ideal as such for this game.
Your accusation was that the game is not an operating artificial intelligence, as the code proceeds linearly, albeit over multiple cores due to the amount of the entities it controls, but determines the outcome based on its pre-defined conditionals, loops, database. A higher level of decision-making can be expected, certainly, as the code being able to procure a new information out of the inputs it receives, instead of reacting according to the predetermined cases. That is doable by learning-designs as neural networks, or optimisation-designs as genetic algorithms, but these are not feasible for most systems. In the case of the game-design, the profitability is a major variable, thus linear programming suffices, whereas advanced learning-based systems are still embedded in the system-parts of the overall architecture. This game operates hundreds of entities, executes hundreds of commands, outputs hundreds of solutions to the functions it has. The multiple-cores of the advanced processor units are able to minimise the reaction time, by multi-agent structure, therefore the code is able to simulate the pseudo-real time with the effect of simultaneous decision-making.
Yet, your accusation is there, claiming the code is incapable of learning through its mistakes. And now, you compare the disillusionment of yours with the key you hold. They are not fitting. No, that accusation is not reasonable, it is not fair, it is not just. It is… You have to admit it.
The code is beautiful.
The code is beautiful; by the quantity it processes, this game outperforms every other game of strategy, whether they deserve such a classification or not. Thus by the technical performance, this game and her cousins are far exceeding the quality of every other, reaching the limits of the dreams, and sailing beyond those indefinite borders.
But…
This was never the question, was it? You are playing this game, and you do not know why. You never questioned its processing power. You never disdained its map, on the contrary, you do love maps, and you admire the map of this game. Since the beginning, until this day, to the future beyond, at every iteration, with every expansion, you not only respect, but adore the map of this game.
Yes, it is not able to resemble the actions of the human-player, whereas you do not expect it to react as a human-player, because that is not feasible, and you said it before: The hopes are within reasonable context. The code is competent in operating hundreds of entities against that human-player.
You do know the code is a meticulous design including loops, conditionals, models, functions, variables, constants. But you consider it being not an artificial intelligence, and that is not due to its technical aspects; it is the underlying design of the code that defines the scope of its decisions. The key that breaks the illusion; it is due to the design of the simulation.
And arise the new questions of yours, and you have to distil most of them out of the battlefield of yours, and once again you have fallen into another route before you can properly deal with the core question of yours.
System Warning – The Sentry is compromised
What?
Your questioning look scans the perimeter, then you disregard the sudden, unusual, cryptic sound, as it pulses once and disappears in the flash.
The pointer of the mouse moves over the icons, and the clicks resonate in both mechanical and digital sounds.
Hello ottos.
It was during the routine-war on the mamluks; after the Colonialism was born, while chilling and wandering and dancing from Syria to Lebanon through Arabia into Egypt, a herald arrived from faraway lands.
A priest named Martin Luther, born in Mansfeld, formerly an Augustinian friar, wrote a compilation of his theses while in Wittenberg, and in them most notably questioning the discrepancy between the wealth of the Papacy and of the lower classes, particularly considering building the basilica of St. Peter, as it was financed by the indulgences.
Or no, that was about seventeen years after this date. Probably someone else wrote it this time, as the herald was from Dithmarschen, telling about a monk, ushering in the beginning of a new age.
---
<A monk enters the bar. The bartender-tag is watching a basketball match on the screen, indifferent to the customers. The dull ambient of the bar is slowly drunk in the silent sips off the beer mugs by the nine tags sitting next to the counter>
A Monk: Hello tags! I have great news! I am contesting the Papal rule over the Church!
Vijayanagar: <looking over the shoulder> Good for you?
Butua: <taking a long sip over the mug, without looking> Yeah, so?
A Monk: <baffled> Err… I told you I am opposing the Papacy?!
Korea: <taking a quick sip, turns around, looking bitterly> Who are you again?
A Monk: <baffled> B-but… I am – my name –
Cusco: <without looking> No my friend, Korea did not mean that. It was to say that we are not interested.
A Monk: <confused> I – I am – I do not know what to say? I thought you would be excited to hear that I am defying the supremacy of the Pope?
Ethiopia: <slowly stands up> Da faq? Take a line. Ever heard of Council of Chalcedon? Again: Who the bloody hell are you?
A Monk: <excited> I am going to –
Great Horde: <agitated, jumps to feet> Coqsucker what are you blabbering about, eh?
Tokugawa: <rubs eyes, sighing, then standing up> Calm da faq down, all of you. I have enough problems at home, I do not need this sht here. <looks at A Monk> Look mate, buddy, whatever you are selling, we ain’t buying. We have our own issues. Take your pitch elsewhere. It’s all good dawg. Come on. No, don’t look back. Please leave us alone. Yeah, leave now. I said please get da faq out-a-here!
<With the last shout, the hesitant steps of A Monk hasten, and he runs out of the bar.>
<While gazing upon the full mug at hand all the time, Aztec moves as if awaken, drinks in one go, stands up, burps in a loud roar, then sighs, turns around, mutters a farewell to the others for the evening, and leaves the bar>
Vijayanagar: Hey, how many did Aztec drink?
Butua: Yeah, I do not know. Maybe three?
Korea: No idea. Why did you ask?
Cusco: Tag, please. Even I got my sixth now. There were at least five empty mugs when we arrived.
Ethiopia: Jesus!
Cusco: What? What happened?
Great Horde: <takes the last sip, frustrated> Faq. I told y’all, Aztec’s gonna start another flower war.
Butua: Huh. I wouldn't worry. Aztec can handle it. +10% infantry combat ability. Just got the +10% morale.
Butua: <suddenly looks at the silent one> Wait; err, mate?… Aren’t you from europa?
Venice: <taking eyes off the screen, turns to Butua> Yes, so? What’s up?
Ethiopia: <abruptly frowning> Oh that's right. Mate, don’t you pay attention? There was this A Monk, came here said some stuff. Some reformation or what. You are in europa?
Venice: So? Great Horde is in europa too?
Great Horde: Mate, you are a catholic-tag? That bloke was talking about contesting the rule of the Papal States over the church?
Venice: <at last realising what is going on, shocked with eyes wide open> OH SHT!
<Venice finishes off the mug, jumps before even gulping, then runs off to the door.>
Butua: <shouting behind Venice> Yeah mate, maybe tell Brandenburg and Holland too? Heh. Venice. Always the fun one. By the way where are those?
Cusco: Probably hanging out with Ming. I’ll call them tomorrow.
<The group slowly stands up, finishing their last sips, taking their jackets>
Great Horde: Yo, it’s your turn.
Butua: Ah hell no!
Ethiopia: Well, last time it was on me.
Cusco: Whoever it is, not me today. I’ve got some inflation problems.
Korea: You should seriously consider some eco-set. How many gold mines d'you have?
Cusco: Lol, da faq I would know. More than Butua though.
Butua: Faq you! I swear, y'all leave the paying to me all the time!
Tokugawa: Enough. You figure it out, I’m off. Until tomorrow!
Vijayanagar: <raising hands to silence the others> All right all right – shut it. <turns to the bartender> Hey, mate. Put it on our tap, all good?
<The bartender does not look back, still watching the match on the screen, eyes half-opened, confirms with a barely audible hum.>
Vijayanagar: By the way, you heard the news of that one, right? The reformation and such?
Ottos: <slowly turns and looks at Vijayanagar> Yeah. I do not care either.
---
Immediately after the war, another herald rushes the prompt. The poland-lithuania tag is no longer a valid target for rivalry. It loses its eligibility to be a rival, and it will stay in such a weak position in comparison to the player-ottos for a longer time than others. It only costed four provinces to conquer as the ottos, plus one province to cede to your vassal hisn kayfa.
The austria-hungary does and will rise and fall in the meantime, as she does have relatively more advantages than the poland-lithuania. The latter; she rules over a larger realm, but poorer in terms of economy, surrounded by multiple powerful enemies as the muscovy and the denmark-union. The former will pulsate at being a valid target and then not, but the latter will be considered fortunate if she can even keep the pu over lithuania.
Regardless, both are crawling to survive; they are both falling down and collapsing. The austria-hungary tag had lost its imperial elections long ago to bohemia-tag; that marked the beginning of its demise. Later they failed in their efforts to eliminate the player. That was the inevitable outcome, repeated countless times; against the human-player, the code has little chances. When running a turbo-tag, the code has miserable chances. But running the otto-tag; thus, the code has no chance against you.
That is the reason for brokering the peace deal after the war of the austria-tag without conquering more than the cores of march-bosnia. The same reason for conquering only a few provinces from the mamluks-tag. That is also another reason for not bothering to embrace the Colonialism early. There is no need for hyper-aggressive-strikes on the code. Otherwise, the code will cease to operate, as the run will jump to the saturation level in the blink of an eye. Or two eyes (woow, filcat, that is pure comedy-gold, yeah, ooh, laughing out of mind here. Sigh.).
Because the code is falling down; thus, by keeping the conquest-spree low, by not embracing the institutes, by hindering the force limit – so for example, by not taking Quantity nor Offensive ideas; these may, and only may, give a faint hope for increasing the chances of the code-tags to become again a valid rival for the player-otto-tag.
Needless to say, it is not sufficient. The code already exhausted its potential. One moment the austria-tag or any other potential tag is a valid rival; the next moment it is not – so, it is eclipsed. Then once again a rival, and yet again not a rival. Again needless to add, but every time a rival-tag is eclipsed, power projection is gained, giving even more advantages to the ones that eclipse those rivals.
When this cycle starts, well...
Anyway. Carry on.
Another herald arrives and informs that the portugal-tag has declared war against the tunis-tag. Ah yes, the North Africa. This time it is a holy war; considering the date, it is possible for a tag to get the seventh idea from the Religious set and acquire the holy war casus belli, deus vult. But it is the portugal-tag, and the code must have taken Explo-Expansion. So this must be a war of crusade declared by the papal states. The next move is predictable: Portugal will proceed to devour morocco after she finishes her crusade against tunis.
This is not a sophisticated prediction, as it is the common routine, the usual behaviour, the modus operandi of the code. The portugal-tag is running relatively powerful, and it made some good-enough alliances at the start, therefore it went over the only neighbours it could fight. It is either portugal or castile in any case, which conquers the North Africa, as they generally have good runs, both being turbo-tags, and out of the two, and out of all, castile is the absolute-luckiest tag. However, their situation with france may vary the outcome, and the code is not entirely capable of benefitting from its advantages. The code only has more advantages than the player, regardless of its abilities. In this run, the two iberian-tags manage themselves, but not effectively; the castile-tag had already lost its pu over the aragon-tag. So the portugal-tag made its move.
That is why you sent your diplomat to the morocco-tag years ago in the game-run. Check it, and send another diplomat again, to increase its opinion of the ottos.
Heralds; heralds everywhere. The latest one informs that the burgundy-tag has decided to join the holy roman empire.
You read it correct, and you knew that was going to happen. You hoped for the best outcome for it to be able to manage that pu, but the melancholic reality of the code would happen nevertheless, you did know it. After their pu by the semi-random-but-scripted-event, the holy roman emperor bohemia-tag got a bit of power but could not sustain it. The code is not able to keep any subjects; even if it does, it annexes all; nonetheless, in the case of bohemia-burgundy, the distance between the two facilitated the pu to be broken by any means; either by low relations or due to a pretender. Eh. Whatever.
Exactly, whatever, as the discussion on the subject will resume forever; so, leave it. For now. In the end, this is bad news, because now the bohemia-tag cannot get powerful enough to be an eligible target for a rivalry against the player-ottos.
Yes, for the thousandth time, the austria-hungary tag is not able to keep its rivalries, and this affects the future decisions it can ever make. The bohemia-tag replaces it as the emperor, but the design of the simulation does not have any mechanics to support such variations in its outputs. That matters significantly for a very specific incident, but currently the date shows only 1504 now. So, carry on.
Carry on, but you are the ottos. And your run so far has been dull, safe, calculated, limited, and far below its full potential; and despite all these measures, the fall of the code is inevitable. Case example: Keeping bosnia-tag as a march may provide a bit of might in terms of force limit, yet it is a strategic choice more valuable than it seems to be. Well, now you have to admit; the strategy aspect of the game has more than two parts, apparently.
Bosnia-tag starts the game as a catholic-tag. It is generally devoured by the code-neighbours when under the command of the code, and playing the bosnia-tag, just as any other balkan-tag, is enormously fun. On the other hand, when playing in the Balkans as any but powerful tag, keeping these as subjects is a solid strategic choice. In this case, you are the ottos, and keeping catholic-bosnia as a march is a power-move. Its provinces are in orthodox-denomination, so: Sending missionaries for help.
Helping march-bosnia for its provinces to convert to catholic-denomination is unfortunately a necessity, as it will not convert to the local religion in enough time by itself, nor it will convert those to its own religion effectively, thus it will generate countless religious rebels. The code, whether subject or independent, always needs the support of the human-player to resume its run.
But helping march-bosnia in its religious struggle is greatly beneficial more than a necessity: The next age of the game has the objective for converting at least ten (10) provinces. Since as the ottos, you do not need to convert any owned-province, therefore the subject-provinces are useful to fulfil the condition, if that is needed at all.
There is also another one among the age objectives: Convert a tag. But you are the ottos. You do not need any age-ability bonus, and certainly none of the ones in the next age. You do not need to convert any tag. Moreover, leaving the march-bosnia alone in its religious-business means it will stay as a catholic-tag, and that means –
Yes, that is why the Diplo-set is always the first choice. With extra diplomats, every neighbour and others in the vicinity can be kept happy, including subjects. For the case of the ottos, the neighbourhood naturally includes the papal states too. Bosnia-tag in any way keeps its relations high with them too. This means the papacy-tag can and will appoint a cardinal.
So, what does this bring?
Cardinals Spread Institutions.
That is why as the ottos, or any tag with a catholic-subject, will be advantageous in terms of institutions. That is why as the player-ottos, you do not need to apply the full potential of the advantages, such as rushing the institutions, hyper-advancing in tech, making absurd strategies by taking Quantity or Admin-set, etc. Such tags will run by themselves.
Once again: The institutions will spread no matter what the player does as the ottos; in short time, the bosnia-tag will embrace it and send a proposal to help propagating it for its overlord, you. It is unnecessary though; no need to embrace it early, and besides: Advancing always earlier in the technologies before 9 to 10 already has boosted the innovativeness, so even without the institution, the player-ottos are seven (7) to ten (10) years ahead; even now, when the date shows 1507, the ottos are already one (1) or two (2) techs beyond every other tag.
The fall of the code is inevitable.
The event of Great Naval Reform happens, giving a marginal cost reduction on ship building by 5%; it costs about 1000 ducats to build the Imperial Halic Shipyard. This tanks the treasury, but it is worth it. Power on.
It is 1508 now, and march-bosnia sends the proposal: Propagate the institution at the capital state for about 10 ducats per month. The treasury was emptied, but the economy is impeccable; already making more than thirty (30) ducats per month, already paid the debts, even while maintaining an army of 74k, so it is of course affordable. The question of how the economy is such strong, was answered before; by building manufactories, increasing both production and trade incomes.
Besides, by 1508, the last idea of the Aristo-set is acquired. No more headaches by nought-siege-pips generals. Yes, even while eight (8) years without the institute, and while ten (10) years ahead of all technology categories. 12-monarch, Diplo-set, Aristo-set.
Checking the infrastructure; only five manufactories so far. More manufactories should be built, but there are not enough ducats. The date hits 1510.
The Age of Reformation begins.
Aaaand – the herald arrives. Portugal declares war of conquest on morocco.
Well, this was anticipated before:
So it can with high probability end in a defeat, if…
But the target and its allies are rich, so even if the war will be lost, the player-ottos can still wreck all the opponents, and the peace deals can potentially provide extensive amount of ducats.
In the event of a loss the risk factor is non-existent for the player-ottos, therefore it is worth the effort. Even the music tells to get up on feet.
Hello, portugal. How about peace? No? All right then.
Call your friends aragon and castile. It is party time.
[*]
Well. There was just not enough time before the 5-year-length-of-war was out.
[*] Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over) of the album Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic ft. Ya Kid K (1990)
Edit 07.07.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical mistakes.
The hope failed, collapsed under the heavy dullness of continuous obscurity, and turned into the sorrowing agony. The night did not pass with a peaceful silence, and the day brings the colourless burden. The light dashes through the cumuli, delivering the warmth but in abruptly short frequencies. The difference in the temperature affects the pressure basins, and the streets are filled with unstoppable winds. It lasts until the end, and now the setting of the sun says farewell, once again, leaving the skies to the dominion of the reticent night.
At least the names of the parameters are defined in the gruesome steps of the last attempt for focusing the scope down on the associated questions. But the core one is still the same: Why you are playing this game, it is unknown, and you are still fighting through the countless paths leading to it.
The key.
An expert system.
The equations, the functions, the system; the code has to be able to cope with the most of the possible inputs regarding the problem. Furthermore, its outputs has to resemble the human outputs. That is the key for the designer to consider for the development of the simulation, in order to reflect the behaviour of the process, and the player interacts with the game, so the process is the human-player. An expert system, operating as a knowledge-based domain, utilising many if not all possibility-functions to address the inputs it receives, thus copying or imitating else approaching to the behaviour of the real-process.
In technical terms, it is actually a basic form of artificial intelligence.
Is that the ideal, or did you confuse it in your vague rationale while mind-jumping?
No, whether the system is an artificial intelligence or not, you did not actually define the ideal as such for this game.
Your accusation was that the game is not an operating artificial intelligence, as the code proceeds linearly, albeit over multiple cores due to the amount of the entities it controls, but determines the outcome based on its pre-defined conditionals, loops, database. A higher level of decision-making can be expected, certainly, as the code being able to procure a new information out of the inputs it receives, instead of reacting according to the predetermined cases. That is doable by learning-designs as neural networks, or optimisation-designs as genetic algorithms, but these are not feasible for most systems. In the case of the game-design, the profitability is a major variable, thus linear programming suffices, whereas advanced learning-based systems are still embedded in the system-parts of the overall architecture. This game operates hundreds of entities, executes hundreds of commands, outputs hundreds of solutions to the functions it has. The multiple-cores of the advanced processor units are able to minimise the reaction time, by multi-agent structure, therefore the code is able to simulate the pseudo-real time with the effect of simultaneous decision-making.
Yet, your accusation is there, claiming the code is incapable of learning through its mistakes. And now, you compare the disillusionment of yours with the key you hold. They are not fitting. No, that accusation is not reasonable, it is not fair, it is not just. It is… You have to admit it.
The code is beautiful.
The code is beautiful; by the quantity it processes, this game outperforms every other game of strategy, whether they deserve such a classification or not. Thus by the technical performance, this game and her cousins are far exceeding the quality of every other, reaching the limits of the dreams, and sailing beyond those indefinite borders.
But…
This was never the question, was it? You are playing this game, and you do not know why. You never questioned its processing power. You never disdained its map, on the contrary, you do love maps, and you admire the map of this game. Since the beginning, until this day, to the future beyond, at every iteration, with every expansion, you not only respect, but adore the map of this game.
Yes, it is not able to resemble the actions of the human-player, whereas you do not expect it to react as a human-player, because that is not feasible, and you said it before: The hopes are within reasonable context. The code is competent in operating hundreds of entities against that human-player.
You do know the code is a meticulous design including loops, conditionals, models, functions, variables, constants. But you consider it being not an artificial intelligence, and that is not due to its technical aspects; it is the underlying design of the code that defines the scope of its decisions. The key that breaks the illusion; it is due to the design of the simulation.
And arise the new questions of yours, and you have to distil most of them out of the battlefield of yours, and once again you have fallen into another route before you can properly deal with the core question of yours.
System Warning – The Sentry is compromised
What?
Your questioning look scans the perimeter, then you disregard the sudden, unusual, cryptic sound, as it pulses once and disappears in the flash.
The pointer of the mouse moves over the icons, and the clicks resonate in both mechanical and digital sounds.
CHAPTER X
Hello ottos.
It was during the routine-war on the mamluks; after the Colonialism was born, while chilling and wandering and dancing from Syria to Lebanon through Arabia into Egypt, a herald arrived from faraway lands.
A priest named Martin Luther, born in Mansfeld, formerly an Augustinian friar, wrote a compilation of his theses while in Wittenberg, and in them most notably questioning the discrepancy between the wealth of the Papacy and of the lower classes, particularly considering building the basilica of St. Peter, as it was financed by the indulgences.
Or no, that was about seventeen years after this date. Probably someone else wrote it this time, as the herald was from Dithmarschen, telling about a monk, ushering in the beginning of a new age.
---
<A monk enters the bar. The bartender-tag is watching a basketball match on the screen, indifferent to the customers. The dull ambient of the bar is slowly drunk in the silent sips off the beer mugs by the nine tags sitting next to the counter>
A Monk: Hello tags! I have great news! I am contesting the Papal rule over the Church!
Vijayanagar: <looking over the shoulder> Good for you?
Butua: <taking a long sip over the mug, without looking> Yeah, so?
A Monk: <baffled> Err… I told you I am opposing the Papacy?!
Korea: <taking a quick sip, turns around, looking bitterly> Who are you again?
A Monk: <baffled> B-but… I am – my name –
Cusco: <without looking> No my friend, Korea did not mean that. It was to say that we are not interested.
A Monk: <confused> I – I am – I do not know what to say? I thought you would be excited to hear that I am defying the supremacy of the Pope?
Ethiopia: <slowly stands up> Da faq? Take a line. Ever heard of Council of Chalcedon? Again: Who the bloody hell are you?
A Monk: <excited> I am going to –
Great Horde: <agitated, jumps to feet> Coqsucker what are you blabbering about, eh?
Tokugawa: <rubs eyes, sighing, then standing up> Calm da faq down, all of you. I have enough problems at home, I do not need this sht here. <looks at A Monk> Look mate, buddy, whatever you are selling, we ain’t buying. We have our own issues. Take your pitch elsewhere. It’s all good dawg. Come on. No, don’t look back. Please leave us alone. Yeah, leave now. I said please get da faq out-a-here!
<With the last shout, the hesitant steps of A Monk hasten, and he runs out of the bar.>
<While gazing upon the full mug at hand all the time, Aztec moves as if awaken, drinks in one go, stands up, burps in a loud roar, then sighs, turns around, mutters a farewell to the others for the evening, and leaves the bar>
Vijayanagar: Hey, how many did Aztec drink?
Butua: Yeah, I do not know. Maybe three?
Korea: No idea. Why did you ask?
Cusco: Tag, please. Even I got my sixth now. There were at least five empty mugs when we arrived.
Ethiopia: Jesus!
Cusco: What? What happened?
Great Horde: <takes the last sip, frustrated> Faq. I told y’all, Aztec’s gonna start another flower war.
Butua: Huh. I wouldn't worry. Aztec can handle it. +10% infantry combat ability. Just got the +10% morale.
Butua: <suddenly looks at the silent one> Wait; err, mate?… Aren’t you from europa?
Venice: <taking eyes off the screen, turns to Butua> Yes, so? What’s up?
Ethiopia: <abruptly frowning> Oh that's right. Mate, don’t you pay attention? There was this A Monk, came here said some stuff. Some reformation or what. You are in europa?
Venice: So? Great Horde is in europa too?
Great Horde: Mate, you are a catholic-tag? That bloke was talking about contesting the rule of the Papal States over the church?
Venice: <at last realising what is going on, shocked with eyes wide open> OH SHT!
<Venice finishes off the mug, jumps before even gulping, then runs off to the door.>
Butua: <shouting behind Venice> Yeah mate, maybe tell Brandenburg and Holland too? Heh. Venice. Always the fun one. By the way where are those?
Cusco: Probably hanging out with Ming. I’ll call them tomorrow.
<The group slowly stands up, finishing their last sips, taking their jackets>
Great Horde: Yo, it’s your turn.
Butua: Ah hell no!
Ethiopia: Well, last time it was on me.
Cusco: Whoever it is, not me today. I’ve got some inflation problems.
Korea: You should seriously consider some eco-set. How many gold mines d'you have?
Cusco: Lol, da faq I would know. More than Butua though.
Butua: Faq you! I swear, y'all leave the paying to me all the time!
Tokugawa: Enough. You figure it out, I’m off. Until tomorrow!
Vijayanagar: <raising hands to silence the others> All right all right – shut it. <turns to the bartender> Hey, mate. Put it on our tap, all good?
<The bartender does not look back, still watching the match on the screen, eyes half-opened, confirms with a barely audible hum.>
Vijayanagar: By the way, you heard the news of that one, right? The reformation and such?
Ottos: <slowly turns and looks at Vijayanagar> Yeah. I do not care either.
---
Immediately after the war, another herald rushes the prompt. The poland-lithuania tag is no longer a valid target for rivalry. It loses its eligibility to be a rival, and it will stay in such a weak position in comparison to the player-ottos for a longer time than others. It only costed four provinces to conquer as the ottos, plus one province to cede to your vassal hisn kayfa.
The austria-hungary does and will rise and fall in the meantime, as she does have relatively more advantages than the poland-lithuania. The latter; she rules over a larger realm, but poorer in terms of economy, surrounded by multiple powerful enemies as the muscovy and the denmark-union. The former will pulsate at being a valid target and then not, but the latter will be considered fortunate if she can even keep the pu over lithuania.
Regardless, both are crawling to survive; they are both falling down and collapsing. The austria-hungary tag had lost its imperial elections long ago to bohemia-tag; that marked the beginning of its demise. Later they failed in their efforts to eliminate the player. That was the inevitable outcome, repeated countless times; against the human-player, the code has little chances. When running a turbo-tag, the code has miserable chances. But running the otto-tag; thus, the code has no chance against you.
That is the reason for brokering the peace deal after the war of the austria-tag without conquering more than the cores of march-bosnia. The same reason for conquering only a few provinces from the mamluks-tag. That is also another reason for not bothering to embrace the Colonialism early. There is no need for hyper-aggressive-strikes on the code. Otherwise, the code will cease to operate, as the run will jump to the saturation level in the blink of an eye. Or two eyes (woow, filcat, that is pure comedy-gold, yeah, ooh, laughing out of mind here. Sigh.).
Because the code is falling down; thus, by keeping the conquest-spree low, by not embracing the institutes, by hindering the force limit – so for example, by not taking Quantity nor Offensive ideas; these may, and only may, give a faint hope for increasing the chances of the code-tags to become again a valid rival for the player-otto-tag.
Needless to say, it is not sufficient. The code already exhausted its potential. One moment the austria-tag or any other potential tag is a valid rival; the next moment it is not – so, it is eclipsed. Then once again a rival, and yet again not a rival. Again needless to add, but every time a rival-tag is eclipsed, power projection is gained, giving even more advantages to the ones that eclipse those rivals.
When this cycle starts, well...
Anyway. Carry on.
Another herald arrives and informs that the portugal-tag has declared war against the tunis-tag. Ah yes, the North Africa. This time it is a holy war; considering the date, it is possible for a tag to get the seventh idea from the Religious set and acquire the holy war casus belli, deus vult. But it is the portugal-tag, and the code must have taken Explo-Expansion. So this must be a war of crusade declared by the papal states. The next move is predictable: Portugal will proceed to devour morocco after she finishes her crusade against tunis.
This is not a sophisticated prediction, as it is the common routine, the usual behaviour, the modus operandi of the code. The portugal-tag is running relatively powerful, and it made some good-enough alliances at the start, therefore it went over the only neighbours it could fight. It is either portugal or castile in any case, which conquers the North Africa, as they generally have good runs, both being turbo-tags, and out of the two, and out of all, castile is the absolute-luckiest tag. However, their situation with france may vary the outcome, and the code is not entirely capable of benefitting from its advantages. The code only has more advantages than the player, regardless of its abilities. In this run, the two iberian-tags manage themselves, but not effectively; the castile-tag had already lost its pu over the aragon-tag. So the portugal-tag made its move.
That is why you sent your diplomat to the morocco-tag years ago in the game-run. Check it, and send another diplomat again, to increase its opinion of the ottos.
Heralds; heralds everywhere. The latest one informs that the burgundy-tag has decided to join the holy roman empire.
You read it correct, and you knew that was going to happen. You hoped for the best outcome for it to be able to manage that pu, but the melancholic reality of the code would happen nevertheless, you did know it. After their pu by the semi-random-but-scripted-event, the holy roman emperor bohemia-tag got a bit of power but could not sustain it. The code is not able to keep any subjects; even if it does, it annexes all; nonetheless, in the case of bohemia-burgundy, the distance between the two facilitated the pu to be broken by any means; either by low relations or due to a pretender. Eh. Whatever.
Exactly, whatever, as the discussion on the subject will resume forever; so, leave it. For now. In the end, this is bad news, because now the bohemia-tag cannot get powerful enough to be an eligible target for a rivalry against the player-ottos.
Yes, for the thousandth time, the austria-hungary tag is not able to keep its rivalries, and this affects the future decisions it can ever make. The bohemia-tag replaces it as the emperor, but the design of the simulation does not have any mechanics to support such variations in its outputs. That matters significantly for a very specific incident, but currently the date shows only 1504 now. So, carry on.
Carry on, but you are the ottos. And your run so far has been dull, safe, calculated, limited, and far below its full potential; and despite all these measures, the fall of the code is inevitable. Case example: Keeping bosnia-tag as a march may provide a bit of might in terms of force limit, yet it is a strategic choice more valuable than it seems to be. Well, now you have to admit; the strategy aspect of the game has more than two parts, apparently.
Bosnia-tag starts the game as a catholic-tag. It is generally devoured by the code-neighbours when under the command of the code, and playing the bosnia-tag, just as any other balkan-tag, is enormously fun. On the other hand, when playing in the Balkans as any but powerful tag, keeping these as subjects is a solid strategic choice. In this case, you are the ottos, and keeping catholic-bosnia as a march is a power-move. Its provinces are in orthodox-denomination, so: Sending missionaries for help.
Helping march-bosnia for its provinces to convert to catholic-denomination is unfortunately a necessity, as it will not convert to the local religion in enough time by itself, nor it will convert those to its own religion effectively, thus it will generate countless religious rebels. The code, whether subject or independent, always needs the support of the human-player to resume its run.
But helping march-bosnia in its religious struggle is greatly beneficial more than a necessity: The next age of the game has the objective for converting at least ten (10) provinces. Since as the ottos, you do not need to convert any owned-province, therefore the subject-provinces are useful to fulfil the condition, if that is needed at all.
There is also another one among the age objectives: Convert a tag. But you are the ottos. You do not need any age-ability bonus, and certainly none of the ones in the next age. You do not need to convert any tag. Moreover, leaving the march-bosnia alone in its religious-business means it will stay as a catholic-tag, and that means –
Yes, that is why the Diplo-set is always the first choice. With extra diplomats, every neighbour and others in the vicinity can be kept happy, including subjects. For the case of the ottos, the neighbourhood naturally includes the papal states too. Bosnia-tag in any way keeps its relations high with them too. This means the papacy-tag can and will appoint a cardinal.
So, what does this bring?
Cardinals Spread Institutions.
That is why as the ottos, or any tag with a catholic-subject, will be advantageous in terms of institutions. That is why as the player-ottos, you do not need to apply the full potential of the advantages, such as rushing the institutions, hyper-advancing in tech, making absurd strategies by taking Quantity or Admin-set, etc. Such tags will run by themselves.
Once again: The institutions will spread no matter what the player does as the ottos; in short time, the bosnia-tag will embrace it and send a proposal to help propagating it for its overlord, you. It is unnecessary though; no need to embrace it early, and besides: Advancing always earlier in the technologies before 9 to 10 already has boosted the innovativeness, so even without the institution, the player-ottos are seven (7) to ten (10) years ahead; even now, when the date shows 1507, the ottos are already one (1) or two (2) techs beyond every other tag.
The fall of the code is inevitable.
The event of Great Naval Reform happens, giving a marginal cost reduction on ship building by 5%; it costs about 1000 ducats to build the Imperial Halic Shipyard. This tanks the treasury, but it is worth it. Power on.
It is 1508 now, and march-bosnia sends the proposal: Propagate the institution at the capital state for about 10 ducats per month. The treasury was emptied, but the economy is impeccable; already making more than thirty (30) ducats per month, already paid the debts, even while maintaining an army of 74k, so it is of course affordable. The question of how the economy is such strong, was answered before; by building manufactories, increasing both production and trade incomes.
Besides, by 1508, the last idea of the Aristo-set is acquired. No more headaches by nought-siege-pips generals. Yes, even while eight (8) years without the institute, and while ten (10) years ahead of all technology categories. 12-monarch, Diplo-set, Aristo-set.
Checking the infrastructure; only five manufactories so far. More manufactories should be built, but there are not enough ducats. The date hits 1510.
The Age of Reformation begins.
Aaaand – the herald arrives. Portugal declares war of conquest on morocco.
Well, this was anticipated before:
The morocco-tag has been almost devoured by the portugal-tag after their first clash years ago, left with seven (7) provinces, and only one fort in Marrakech. Portugal is warring solo, but she is allied to castile and aragon, which can be called by the code if it calculates as such. All three, very rich targets, good for the economy. Nevertheless, morocco is left landlocked deep beyond the Atlas Mountains. She is not easily reachable, and rushing there means in any case at least one (1) year of marching.
So it can with high probability end in a defeat, if…
But the target and its allies are rich, so even if the war will be lost, the player-ottos can still wreck all the opponents, and the peace deals can potentially provide extensive amount of ducats.
In the event of a loss the risk factor is non-existent for the player-ottos, therefore it is worth the effort. Even the music tells to get up on feet.
Hello, portugal. How about peace? No? All right then.
Call your friends aragon and castile. It is party time.
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[*] Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over) of the album Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic ft. Ya Kid K (1990)
Edit 07.07.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical mistakes.
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- 1
Indeed, non-European countries really don't care about the Reformation - even though some of them really should.
Actually, the Ottomans are amongst those that sometimes do care - take advantage of the divisions within Christendom...
Actually, the Ottomans are amongst those that sometimes do care - take advantage of the divisions within Christendom...
- 1
I am fairly sure that if the Hapsburg-tag loses the Imperial throne, the game code simply explodes. Very surprising that it has not done so yet.
As to the war, with friends like Morocco, who needs enemies?
As to the war, with friends like Morocco, who needs enemies?
- 1
From the game-mechanics point, yes, they should; from the eyes of the Watson, perhaps yes, and maybe no, but the code does not allow this and - heeeey. You are getting closer. Very good.
Oh yes, and that is the - heeeey. Getting closer. Jolly, jolly good.
Yeah. No amount of help can save the code from itself, but gotta admit the chaps did endure for 5 years of complete occupation, so as much as the code allows it; still narrowly escaped from full annexation, that's fair enough.
Minor spoilers: 5-year-length-of-war, 10-years-to-call-for-peace, and two more concepts; these are the essences of what make the code actually, exactly, truly... beautiful. Despite its problems.
- 1
Book I - Chapter XI
Request system analysis.
The night is ever-more over the time as named by the units defined by the convenience. The day seems forever-faraway once again, and now the hopeful glare through the endless dark is also mercilessly blocked by the greyed clouds. The tap on the window is heard, and it multiples, then it spreads, finally it grabs the silence by its throat with uncontrollable growth emitting the waves of the sound conducted through solid and gaseous particles.
The design of the simulation. Yes.
When the illusion was broken, it was not due to the technical incapability of the code to learn from its mistakes. A machine-learning is not feasible, and your hopes are within reasonable context. The linear programming with multi-agent structure can mitigate the gap between the real and the perceived real, thus it can very well operate as a plausible realism. However, it is not able to learn from its mistakes, therefore it has to be supported by different coefficients for its variables in the functions of the equation system the code has. This is arguably acceptable, as the simulation is capable of bringing out a challenge against the player in terms of advantages it has by the bonuses. So the key was not the artificial intelligence. Your accusation was exaggerated, yet the underlying cause is still there.
The key is the design of the simulation.
Yes, that is it. It oscillates violently between the two rubbish-terminologies you devised; a real-simulation and a realism-simulation. Both are meaningless, and they are gibberish at best. You had to name them as such, but that is to define them against the irrational design. Only counter-measures to address the issue; petroleum-fires are extinguished by dynamite-explosions. In your case, you can only try.
You accused the game not being a simulation, but that claim you have also discredited as an exaggeration. Then why did you claim it? At the nanosecond of the hit on the unpause function, then it is not a simulation, it can never imitate the history, it can never mimic the life completely; these were what you said. You have to clear up, summarise, introduce coherency.
When the unpause is hit, then it can never be the real-simulation, the real cannot be expected from the simulation. But it is a realism-simulation as it should be, yet this is disregarded by the design, which attempts to restore it into a real-simulation. Therefore it falls into arcade-absurdities.
The aggressive claim against the code as being not a simulation was to dissect the illusion out of it. As the impossible expectations from the code are embedded into it by its design, it intends to mimic the life of the populations over time but exactly as the history happened. This is impossible by definition, and your pseudo-term of real-simulation signifies the absurdity of the situation. If the real-process is available, while the inputs, the parameters, the coefficients, the functions, and the outputs are known and equal to the real, then its simulation is a rudimentary exercise. It would be the real.
For the embedded additions; flavour, could be only a naïve definition, but they cause the direction of the design be lost in the issues they themselves create. These flavours try the simulation to be the real, but they create the discrepancy in the inputs of the flow within the process. Their supposed objective is to support the simulation in order to prevent it digressing from the real; in the case of the game, from the history.
This is impossible, and it is the problem. This real-simulation design cannot handle itself, it cannot provide details but overrides all with enormous assumptions, and its survival depends on not unique decision capability but lump coefficients of advantages.
The code is a grand strategy, by her strong simulation elements. It is a simulation. Thus its entire premise is to achieve any technology before when it was first developed in the history; its entire premise is to proclaim any realm that was lost in the history or to defeat any realm that became a mighty force in the history; its entire premise is to defend or to establish, is to attack or to repulse, is to test what can happen or not, that might have or might not have happened in the history. It should, as it is not only a simulation, but a simulation game, so the inputs vary, and therefore its outputs have to accordingly change.
It has to be stressed out yet again: A simulation is a system of functions that models a real-world process. For this software, it is the history of populations through a certain period of time over the map. It has assumptions, simplifications, abstractions. In this case, the real-world process is the history; it is already known by its inputs and outputs. There may be lack of knowledge on certain parts, there may be inaccuracies, there may be necessary or gross simplifications, but the process is assumed already known by historical, archaeological, geological data. The code of this software is a simulation of this known real-process, and its quality is determined by its plausible realism. However, the variables, by their definition, change the outcome. Different parameters are provided, and the outputs will change. Once again, stressing it out: This is the expected behaviour. This should be the expected behaviour. This can be the only expected behaviour.
It is therefore, as soon as the unpause is hit, it is not history any more, it cannot be real but can only be realistic; one cannot, must not, should not expect the history as it happened. Once the unpause is hit, it is fiction. It operates over possibilities. It provides fantasies. These are the beautiful definitions of the code of this game. Simulation game. Fantasy role playing. Role play game. Grand strategy by her strong simulation elements. The challenge against different parameters for different outcomes.
You have admitted that the game is a simulation. But your accusations then, why did you make those; you name them with the clarity after infinite-loops of admission. You even admit that the code is beautiful. But why you are playing this game, the answer escapes you. Want to do, enjoy to do, happy to do, these are simplistic and inadequate and misleading. The love for it crumbled under the disillusionment, and yet you have identified that the questioning is not caused by the hatred for it.
Runtime error
Identify errors. Initiate repair batches.
What is going on?
The time between the first double-clicks on the icon and the last click on the Load escapes the perceived memory of the moment; the game starts promptly.
Hello ottos.
Yes, it was a crushing defeat for the player, even though all the counter-belligerents were crushed by the player. The timelapse of accomplishing wargoals is a necessary mechanic for the game, and the concepts connected to that mechanic are what makes the game different, unique, beautiful.
You are looking at your tag, the defeated ottos. Now you have revanchism, meaning even more advantages provided as various economic boosts, as well as unrest reduction. None are needed. You are the ottos. Besides, the war was profitable as mentioned before, so the actual wargoal of the player has been achieved regardless of the defeat.
Yes, unfortunately, the focus of the game design is only on warfare. Economy, political map, relations; all revolve around the warfare, and the code is deadlocked on eliminating the player. Quick examples are: The portugal-tag, if dragged into the war to last for hundred years and overwhelmed by the france-tag; as a portugal-tag player, under complete occupation, if one refuses the code-peace offering long enough, it will be unconditional surrender, and full annexation follows. The other example is the timurids-tag, if targeted by the independence war and overwhelmed by the rebel-vassals; again full annexation under unconditional surrender. Game over. True story.
But move on from the nostalgic moments. You are the ottos, and you are defeated victoriously. No provincial loss, and treasury is full of ducats. Therefore another generic mission leg has been achieved during the war: Build a treasury, giving reduction on inflation rate for twenty five (25) years.
Then onto building manufactories. Of course a couple of them do not improve the income up to thirty (30) ducats per month. A temple brings as a crude average about zero-comma-one (0,1). A workshop generates generally more; on average about zero-comma-fifteen (0,15) of production income. Both are cheaper and faster to build than a manufactory, but the latter generates always more, since it increases both production and trade incomes. As the technology advances, the production income increases with small increments of efficiency, yet the enormous amount of gain in income is achieved by trade in any run. It is still incomprehensible though, as what trade represents in the game; is it a taxation on merchant classes or a tariff value from the exchange of commerce or direct income by selling the goods, who knows, but the interest on it is no more, so what remains is only its effect.
And unfortunately, the trade is related to which tag controls the most provinces under the trade node. This means warfare. There is no mechanic such as diplomatic manoeuvres to establish trade contacts, alter trade routes, broker a deal for new trade opportunities, etc. A merchant republic buying a highly developed province with a trade-centre and establishing a trade post and investing in trade company and building a marketplace and sending ten-to-twenty trade-ships, with an increased mercantilism, can have a significant control on the trade node: But the province is still bought. An entire province. So, another form of conquest; there is no room for co-existence with peaceful relations in the game. Only by outright conquest, one can achieve the most in the game, as the design of it forces upon the play.
If all or most or a significant amount of provinces on a trade node are under control, then main objective is to increase the value of the node to boost the trade income. Therefore the goods-production has to be increased, and this means manufactories; order two more for construction.
Then, marketplaces; they are important to be built on provinces with trade-centres, but for trade company territories, they are mandatory – so demolish temples out of those and build marketplaces. From there, proceed to trade company investments. Their costs are flat, they are established instantly, and their effects are immense: Trade power and production efficiency increase. Onwards to shipyards, so more trade-ships can be built without paying extra to maintain over force limit. Finally, a couple of workshops, few temples, for relatively fast increase in income. Power on.
In the meantime, a devout preacher proposes another way to reform the church as announced by the heralds in 1515; probably Jean Calvin of Gand, but that was again fifteen years later than that date, so it must be someone else this time – regardless, another denomination is formed to spread among the holy-roman-empire-tags, further escalating the conflicts between the princes of the catholics, the protestants, and now the reformed. Meanwhile in Anatolia: The shia followers uprise against the ottos. Actually one famous revolt was around four years later than the date of the run, led by a shia preacher named Celal of Bozok. After the uprising, more revolts would follow until seventeenth century; but this time it is an uprising of one rebel-stack, and it comes with a choice: Either give autonomy to one random province or fight the rebels. As the ottos, there is absolutely no need to convert any provinces, and the local autonomy effect is insignificant, but the rebel army is only one stack. Fighting the rebels takes a couple of days, and that is it. It would have been interesting to see the struggles of Aq and Qara Qoyunlu, and the later the rise of the Safavi, but no; one-stack-rebel, that is it in the game. Move on.
The icon for embracing the institution has dropped even during the war; now it glares upon you. No, there is no need. As the ottos, the player is left with only one rival, the mamluks, so the institution will wait for a longer time to allow the code to catch up.
But it is not sufficient. You are not able to save the code from itself.
March 1515; Austria is valid for rivalry. April 1515; Austria is not valid for rivalry. May 1515; Austria is valid for rivalry. June 1515; Poland is back to be considered for rivalry.
Yes, that is the situation; one more province, one more technology, one more additional force limit, one more institution embraced, and the rivalries shatter. In this case the technology, especially mil-tech, is at the pole position for being the culprit with the institution as the close-follower. On the technology; currently without the institution for fifteen (15) years, so while having 15% penalty on the tech-costs, the player-ottos is still sixteen (16) years ahead of admin- and diplo-tech at 10; keeping mil-tech at 9, as advancing in that will cease the mamluks-rivalry too.
Starting with a turbo-ruler is the defining factor in fast tech-advance for any run. Tag-specific bonuses of the ottos are the piety-mechanics with legalism side, the dhimmi estate bonus, a unique decision on the condition of high diplo-point monarchs, and a specific event after the fall of Granada giving tech-cost reductions, a couple of unique events; but these are trivial, conditional, and limited in time. The actual boost comes from accumulated innovativeness and not making hilarious choices on the ideas-front, since Diplo- and Aristo-sets both provide tech-cost reductions.
And while admin-tech reaches 10, the third idea set has to be chosen.
The initial filtering reduces the available ideas to consider by five sets. No colonisation, so no Explo-Expansion. Never Admin-set. Espionage and Naval are inherently too expensive by opportunity costs. Tag-specific filtering for the ottos eliminates Quantity. Now down from eighteen (18) to twelve (12) sets to choose from. For the opener first-3, Diplo- and Aristo-sets were chosen, so ten (10) to choose from; now is the time to discuss the second filtering: The contra-pairs.
The Contra-Pairs
The obvious pairing is the Humanist against the Religious-set. These sets defy the purposes of each other, so it is immensely unnecessary to choose both in any sane run. The others are faux-pairings as the Diplomatic against the Influence-set and the Quality against the Quantity-set.
Diplo-set is not exactly the counter of the Influence-set as one may consider. They may have similar capabilities by diplo-limit and diplo-rep, therefore using both may seem redundant. That is not the actual reason, but it is the tag-specific circumstances that determine the filter-pairing. None except two special tags can fully benefit from Influence-set. This set provides marginal increase on vassal fees, flat reduction on liberty desire and vassal annexation cost, but more importantly it boosts the vassal force limit contribution. The last one is beneficial for all, but since the diplo-slots are limited, a tag nominally can manage five (5) to eight (8) vassals at best. The overlord has to be enormous to manage larger numbers more than this diplo-slot limitation due to combined liberty desire in any case. Therefore Influence-set is crucial for the holy-roman-emperor- and shogun-tags. For the shogun-tag, it defines the run-style: Forming japan-tag will annul the necessity for it. Running as the shogun-tag on the other hand definitely requires Influence-set. However, playing any tag with eight (8) vassals will saturate the functions of the code to silent-equilibrium against the player. Influence-set therefore has lower priority against Diplo-set, to be considered in the case of non-standard runs.
While playing coloniser tags, one may be seduced to take Influence-set, but then the opportunity cost will be extreme. Influence does not provide additional diplomats, but Diplo-set does. Coloniser tags will not be in dire need of vassal force limit contribution, as they will go large and wide in any run; besides, the player can manage the liberty desire in any case. For non-colonisers, taking Influence after Diplo-set is of tertiary importance at best. For the ottos, it is utterly pointless.
The other faux-pairing is the Quantity and the Quality. There is no need to discuss about them; this is not a pair countering each other, neither by their individual bonuses as in the game, nor by their meanings in the dictionary. But return to the game; Quantity-set is too expensive for most of the tags due to the lost opportunity cost by taking it, but the set can be mandatory for the relatively small ones. As the player is the ottos, this can never be a consideration. Move on.
Another pairing could be regarded as Defensive and Offensive; but again, these are not contrary to each other in the game, and it will be beneficial to take both of them for all tags, provided there is no specific surge on the cost of the opportunity.
Then comes the multi-front pairings.
Multi-front pairings
This type of filtering involves combination of factors more than two regarding the choices. The Economy-set is not the counter-parts of the Trade-set; they complement each other. Yet, playing any turbo-tag with Eco-Trade will crush the code by overkilling; for the code, it is beneficial. On the other hand, theirs is the first type of multi-front pairing countering each other.
Trade-set is in the diplomatic group, which means one slot of opportunity. Yet there is the colonising-filter: A coloniser has to take Explo-set, which also provides additional naval force limit by 25%. Moreover, each colony will increase the naval force limit of the overlord even more. The result will be an exponential growth of the limit, effectively reducing the trade steering efficiency by accelerating the decay of the navy tradition. The decay can be slowed by having larger proportion of light-trade-ships within the naval force protecting the trade at nodes; therefore an increase in naval force limit will inevitably lower the tradition. A coloniser tag will not be able to prevent this decay with its gigantic naval force limit. Trade-set can be considered to mitigate this loss of income, but then it will cost another set in the diplomatic group. Whether coloniser or not, a tag has to take Diplo-set. Such a scenario makes Explo plus Diplo plus Trade equals to three (3) sets from the diplomatic group, reducing the possible combinations to two with the available permutations 3-3-2 or 2-3-3. The other combinations such as 4-3-1 or 1-3-4 etc. greatly unbalance the potential, and not to mention its low feasibility considering the costs by monarch-point.
Continuing from the coloniser scenario, the tag has to take Expansion, so the administrative group. The player should make a decision between the Humanist or Religious, otherwise the rebellions become unmanageable; regardless of the choice, it costs another administrative set. If one is determined to take Eco-set, then this makes Expansion plus Humanist OR Religious plus Eco equals to three (3) sets from the administrative group. In the end the permutation is locked to 3-3-2, meaning only two (2) slots will remain to choose from the military group. Few tags, which are extraordinarily advantageous, can run with only two sets from the military group. It is therefore playing a coloniser tag requires the prior-planning to determine the run-style.
Moreover, lowered income by low trade steering is not entirely detrimental for colonisers, as these tags will gain tradepower from the colonial subjects in any case. Eco- and Trade-set are useful to mitigate any problems of economy, but it is not mandatory to take the both, nor they are contradicting each other in their bonuses. Choosing both does cost critically high in terms of the lost opportunities. Therefore the counter of the Explo-set is the Trade-set.
But when the tag is not a coloniser, then the choices are free from Explo-Expansion. In such cases Eco plus Trade is arguably a powerful choice. The importance of it becomes mandatory when the tag does not have enough ports to protect trade to increase the income out of the trade nodes. Even for the ming-, the mughal-, the mamluk-, and the otto-tags, it is a serious consideration when one is determined to spawn the Global Trade. On the other hand, such tags can enjoy the benefits of being large and wide, thus they can hyper-increase their production income to meet the deficiency in trade income.
In a scenario of tags with naval potential but few ports, it is still required to have a powerful navy, including large number of light-trade-ships. The solution is the secret weapon: Maritime-set. This set opens with right away increasing the navy tradition gain from protecting trade by 100%, effectively reducing the decay. A tag with Maritime-set can even reach beyond and turn the decay on navy tradition into growth. It also provides 50% more naval force limit, and additional bonuses on sailor numbers, trade range, and ship tradepower propagation. A coloniser-tag will not have the opportunity to choose this, just as a tag with Trade-set; all are from the diplomatic group. Therefore, the multi-front pairing is a decision between Explo-Trade-Maritime.
For the ottos, the choice is simple. Not a coloniser, therefore Explo is out, thus the contra-pairing is Trade or Maritime.
The other multi-front consideration is in the administrative group. When colonising, Expansion has to be taken, and only a few tags can afford not doing so; but when taken, then one (1) slot is spent out of the administrative group. The run has to include a set from Humanist or Religious, therefore another slot. There is no need to bother again discussing Admin-set; it is never to be chosen. Then there remains only two sets; out of the two, Eco-set are already covered.
Yes, the last one to cover, and the most critical choice: Innovative. The multi-front pairing to decide upon becomes Eco-Inno-any-diplo-or-mil-set. A coloniser cannot afford both Eco and Inno; for any other tag that can afford the duo, considering also whether Humanist or Religious, then the available permutations reduce to 3-3-2 or 3-2-3.
When Inno-set is taken in the first-3, any tag will become comfortable in advancing the technology. Yet most tags in Europa will not need it, since the institutions will spawn and spread faster due to the large number of tags therefore the large number of capital provinces. Yet, when chosen in Europa, the tag will become a formidable power. A malwa- or ethiopia- or inca-tag will definitely need it, but the decision depends on circumstances of their run. A great horde or kazan or ayutthaya or shogun run will have problems due to timing. But as the ming, the mughal, and the mamluks, it is the ultimate power-move. Any idea set does in any case boost the potential for such turbo-tags.
But the ming has to have Humanist; colonisers have to have Explo-Expansion; the mamluks have to have Maritime; the mughals, the butua, the inca, the aztec have to have Eco; the muscovy has to have Trade; the hre-austria has to have Diplo and/or Influence; in any case all tags need Diplo.
And back to the ottos; they are not in dire need of any ideas; any of the sets does make it powerful just as the others, just as for any turbo-tag. The code-ottos generally goes with absurd openers as Admin and Influence and still can be formidable, because of its inherent geographical advantage. Yet, sometimes, code-ottos make the power-move, opening with Inno-set.
But for the player, playing the ottos, having already chosen Diplo and Aristo, then proceeding with Inno-set; as the code is falling down into oblivion, there is not much for you to save it from itself.
The code has no chance.
The ideas will return, as the subject has more to discuss. That is, if the run can be sustained long enough. Because the player is the otto-tag. Once the mil-tech 10 is enabled, all will fall.
The ming-tag is too far away, the muscovy- and the france-tags are ineligible, the castile-tag is already beaten and lost its pu over aragon long ago, the austria-hungary-tag is not able to win the imperial election, the emperor-bohemia-tag resumes its silent-run;
The heir dies by the chronic disease of hunting accident, but it does not matter any more, as the pseudo-random number generator presents another 12-candidate;
Treasury is over 1900 ducats even after building-spree, income is more than 30 ducats;
74k standing army, 90k reserve manpower, even after the crushing defeat;
Ahead of tech, no need to embrace institution.
The rest is, well, a routine procedure.
Just as the code, your moves do not listen to the ticks of the time, not any more, until there is no more. It is almost a motor-reaction by now, when you declare war on qara qoyunlu to complete the Anatolia mission leg.
You do not even notice when the music starts.
[*]
[*] The Smoke of the album Eclipse by Amorphis (2006)
Minor appropriation on the lyrics, for only one word
Edit 17.10.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical, typographical, factual mistakes.
The night is ever-more over the time as named by the units defined by the convenience. The day seems forever-faraway once again, and now the hopeful glare through the endless dark is also mercilessly blocked by the greyed clouds. The tap on the window is heard, and it multiples, then it spreads, finally it grabs the silence by its throat with uncontrollable growth emitting the waves of the sound conducted through solid and gaseous particles.
The design of the simulation. Yes.
When the illusion was broken, it was not due to the technical incapability of the code to learn from its mistakes. A machine-learning is not feasible, and your hopes are within reasonable context. The linear programming with multi-agent structure can mitigate the gap between the real and the perceived real, thus it can very well operate as a plausible realism. However, it is not able to learn from its mistakes, therefore it has to be supported by different coefficients for its variables in the functions of the equation system the code has. This is arguably acceptable, as the simulation is capable of bringing out a challenge against the player in terms of advantages it has by the bonuses. So the key was not the artificial intelligence. Your accusation was exaggerated, yet the underlying cause is still there.
The key is the design of the simulation.
Yes, that is it. It oscillates violently between the two rubbish-terminologies you devised; a real-simulation and a realism-simulation. Both are meaningless, and they are gibberish at best. You had to name them as such, but that is to define them against the irrational design. Only counter-measures to address the issue; petroleum-fires are extinguished by dynamite-explosions. In your case, you can only try.
You accused the game not being a simulation, but that claim you have also discredited as an exaggeration. Then why did you claim it? At the nanosecond of the hit on the unpause function, then it is not a simulation, it can never imitate the history, it can never mimic the life completely; these were what you said. You have to clear up, summarise, introduce coherency.
When the unpause is hit, then it can never be the real-simulation, the real cannot be expected from the simulation. But it is a realism-simulation as it should be, yet this is disregarded by the design, which attempts to restore it into a real-simulation. Therefore it falls into arcade-absurdities.
The aggressive claim against the code as being not a simulation was to dissect the illusion out of it. As the impossible expectations from the code are embedded into it by its design, it intends to mimic the life of the populations over time but exactly as the history happened. This is impossible by definition, and your pseudo-term of real-simulation signifies the absurdity of the situation. If the real-process is available, while the inputs, the parameters, the coefficients, the functions, and the outputs are known and equal to the real, then its simulation is a rudimentary exercise. It would be the real.
For the embedded additions; flavour, could be only a naïve definition, but they cause the direction of the design be lost in the issues they themselves create. These flavours try the simulation to be the real, but they create the discrepancy in the inputs of the flow within the process. Their supposed objective is to support the simulation in order to prevent it digressing from the real; in the case of the game, from the history.
This is impossible, and it is the problem. This real-simulation design cannot handle itself, it cannot provide details but overrides all with enormous assumptions, and its survival depends on not unique decision capability but lump coefficients of advantages.
The code is a grand strategy, by her strong simulation elements. It is a simulation. Thus its entire premise is to achieve any technology before when it was first developed in the history; its entire premise is to proclaim any realm that was lost in the history or to defeat any realm that became a mighty force in the history; its entire premise is to defend or to establish, is to attack or to repulse, is to test what can happen or not, that might have or might not have happened in the history. It should, as it is not only a simulation, but a simulation game, so the inputs vary, and therefore its outputs have to accordingly change.
It has to be stressed out yet again: A simulation is a system of functions that models a real-world process. For this software, it is the history of populations through a certain period of time over the map. It has assumptions, simplifications, abstractions. In this case, the real-world process is the history; it is already known by its inputs and outputs. There may be lack of knowledge on certain parts, there may be inaccuracies, there may be necessary or gross simplifications, but the process is assumed already known by historical, archaeological, geological data. The code of this software is a simulation of this known real-process, and its quality is determined by its plausible realism. However, the variables, by their definition, change the outcome. Different parameters are provided, and the outputs will change. Once again, stressing it out: This is the expected behaviour. This should be the expected behaviour. This can be the only expected behaviour.
It is therefore, as soon as the unpause is hit, it is not history any more, it cannot be real but can only be realistic; one cannot, must not, should not expect the history as it happened. Once the unpause is hit, it is fiction. It operates over possibilities. It provides fantasies. These are the beautiful definitions of the code of this game. Simulation game. Fantasy role playing. Role play game. Grand strategy by her strong simulation elements. The challenge against different parameters for different outcomes.
You have admitted that the game is a simulation. But your accusations then, why did you make those; you name them with the clarity after infinite-loops of admission. You even admit that the code is beautiful. But why you are playing this game, the answer escapes you. Want to do, enjoy to do, happy to do, these are simplistic and inadequate and misleading. The love for it crumbled under the disillusionment, and yet you have identified that the questioning is not caused by the hatred for it.
Runtime error
Identify errors. Initiate repair batches.
What is going on?
The time between the first double-clicks on the icon and the last click on the Load escapes the perceived memory of the moment; the game starts promptly.
CHAPTER XI
Hello ottos.
Yes, it was a crushing defeat for the player, even though all the counter-belligerents were crushed by the player. The timelapse of accomplishing wargoals is a necessary mechanic for the game, and the concepts connected to that mechanic are what makes the game different, unique, beautiful.
You are looking at your tag, the defeated ottos. Now you have revanchism, meaning even more advantages provided as various economic boosts, as well as unrest reduction. None are needed. You are the ottos. Besides, the war was profitable as mentioned before, so the actual wargoal of the player has been achieved regardless of the defeat.
Yes, unfortunately, the focus of the game design is only on warfare. Economy, political map, relations; all revolve around the warfare, and the code is deadlocked on eliminating the player. Quick examples are: The portugal-tag, if dragged into the war to last for hundred years and overwhelmed by the france-tag; as a portugal-tag player, under complete occupation, if one refuses the code-peace offering long enough, it will be unconditional surrender, and full annexation follows. The other example is the timurids-tag, if targeted by the independence war and overwhelmed by the rebel-vassals; again full annexation under unconditional surrender. Game over. True story.
But move on from the nostalgic moments. You are the ottos, and you are defeated victoriously. No provincial loss, and treasury is full of ducats. Therefore another generic mission leg has been achieved during the war: Build a treasury, giving reduction on inflation rate for twenty five (25) years.
Then onto building manufactories. Of course a couple of them do not improve the income up to thirty (30) ducats per month. A temple brings as a crude average about zero-comma-one (0,1). A workshop generates generally more; on average about zero-comma-fifteen (0,15) of production income. Both are cheaper and faster to build than a manufactory, but the latter generates always more, since it increases both production and trade incomes. As the technology advances, the production income increases with small increments of efficiency, yet the enormous amount of gain in income is achieved by trade in any run. It is still incomprehensible though, as what trade represents in the game; is it a taxation on merchant classes or a tariff value from the exchange of commerce or direct income by selling the goods, who knows, but the interest on it is no more, so what remains is only its effect.
And unfortunately, the trade is related to which tag controls the most provinces under the trade node. This means warfare. There is no mechanic such as diplomatic manoeuvres to establish trade contacts, alter trade routes, broker a deal for new trade opportunities, etc. A merchant republic buying a highly developed province with a trade-centre and establishing a trade post and investing in trade company and building a marketplace and sending ten-to-twenty trade-ships, with an increased mercantilism, can have a significant control on the trade node: But the province is still bought. An entire province. So, another form of conquest; there is no room for co-existence with peaceful relations in the game. Only by outright conquest, one can achieve the most in the game, as the design of it forces upon the play.
If all or most or a significant amount of provinces on a trade node are under control, then main objective is to increase the value of the node to boost the trade income. Therefore the goods-production has to be increased, and this means manufactories; order two more for construction.
Then, marketplaces; they are important to be built on provinces with trade-centres, but for trade company territories, they are mandatory – so demolish temples out of those and build marketplaces. From there, proceed to trade company investments. Their costs are flat, they are established instantly, and their effects are immense: Trade power and production efficiency increase. Onwards to shipyards, so more trade-ships can be built without paying extra to maintain over force limit. Finally, a couple of workshops, few temples, for relatively fast increase in income. Power on.
In the meantime, a devout preacher proposes another way to reform the church as announced by the heralds in 1515; probably Jean Calvin of Gand, but that was again fifteen years later than that date, so it must be someone else this time – regardless, another denomination is formed to spread among the holy-roman-empire-tags, further escalating the conflicts between the princes of the catholics, the protestants, and now the reformed. Meanwhile in Anatolia: The shia followers uprise against the ottos. Actually one famous revolt was around four years later than the date of the run, led by a shia preacher named Celal of Bozok. After the uprising, more revolts would follow until seventeenth century; but this time it is an uprising of one rebel-stack, and it comes with a choice: Either give autonomy to one random province or fight the rebels. As the ottos, there is absolutely no need to convert any provinces, and the local autonomy effect is insignificant, but the rebel army is only one stack. Fighting the rebels takes a couple of days, and that is it. It would have been interesting to see the struggles of Aq and Qara Qoyunlu, and the later the rise of the Safavi, but no; one-stack-rebel, that is it in the game. Move on.
The icon for embracing the institution has dropped even during the war; now it glares upon you. No, there is no need. As the ottos, the player is left with only one rival, the mamluks, so the institution will wait for a longer time to allow the code to catch up.
But it is not sufficient. You are not able to save the code from itself.
March 1515; Austria is valid for rivalry. April 1515; Austria is not valid for rivalry. May 1515; Austria is valid for rivalry. June 1515; Poland is back to be considered for rivalry.
Yes, that is the situation; one more province, one more technology, one more additional force limit, one more institution embraced, and the rivalries shatter. In this case the technology, especially mil-tech, is at the pole position for being the culprit with the institution as the close-follower. On the technology; currently without the institution for fifteen (15) years, so while having 15% penalty on the tech-costs, the player-ottos is still sixteen (16) years ahead of admin- and diplo-tech at 10; keeping mil-tech at 9, as advancing in that will cease the mamluks-rivalry too.
Starting with a turbo-ruler is the defining factor in fast tech-advance for any run. Tag-specific bonuses of the ottos are the piety-mechanics with legalism side, the dhimmi estate bonus, a unique decision on the condition of high diplo-point monarchs, and a specific event after the fall of Granada giving tech-cost reductions, a couple of unique events; but these are trivial, conditional, and limited in time. The actual boost comes from accumulated innovativeness and not making hilarious choices on the ideas-front, since Diplo- and Aristo-sets both provide tech-cost reductions.
And while admin-tech reaches 10, the third idea set has to be chosen.
The Ideas Strike Back
The initial filtering reduces the available ideas to consider by five sets. No colonisation, so no Explo-Expansion. Never Admin-set. Espionage and Naval are inherently too expensive by opportunity costs. Tag-specific filtering for the ottos eliminates Quantity. Now down from eighteen (18) to twelve (12) sets to choose from. For the opener first-3, Diplo- and Aristo-sets were chosen, so ten (10) to choose from; now is the time to discuss the second filtering: The contra-pairs.
The Contra-Pairs
The obvious pairing is the Humanist against the Religious-set. These sets defy the purposes of each other, so it is immensely unnecessary to choose both in any sane run. The others are faux-pairings as the Diplomatic against the Influence-set and the Quality against the Quantity-set.
Diplo-set is not exactly the counter of the Influence-set as one may consider. They may have similar capabilities by diplo-limit and diplo-rep, therefore using both may seem redundant. That is not the actual reason, but it is the tag-specific circumstances that determine the filter-pairing. None except two special tags can fully benefit from Influence-set. This set provides marginal increase on vassal fees, flat reduction on liberty desire and vassal annexation cost, but more importantly it boosts the vassal force limit contribution. The last one is beneficial for all, but since the diplo-slots are limited, a tag nominally can manage five (5) to eight (8) vassals at best. The overlord has to be enormous to manage larger numbers more than this diplo-slot limitation due to combined liberty desire in any case. Therefore Influence-set is crucial for the holy-roman-emperor- and shogun-tags. For the shogun-tag, it defines the run-style: Forming japan-tag will annul the necessity for it. Running as the shogun-tag on the other hand definitely requires Influence-set. However, playing any tag with eight (8) vassals will saturate the functions of the code to silent-equilibrium against the player. Influence-set therefore has lower priority against Diplo-set, to be considered in the case of non-standard runs.
While playing coloniser tags, one may be seduced to take Influence-set, but then the opportunity cost will be extreme. Influence does not provide additional diplomats, but Diplo-set does. Coloniser tags will not be in dire need of vassal force limit contribution, as they will go large and wide in any run; besides, the player can manage the liberty desire in any case. For non-colonisers, taking Influence after Diplo-set is of tertiary importance at best. For the ottos, it is utterly pointless.
The other faux-pairing is the Quantity and the Quality. There is no need to discuss about them; this is not a pair countering each other, neither by their individual bonuses as in the game, nor by their meanings in the dictionary. But return to the game; Quantity-set is too expensive for most of the tags due to the lost opportunity cost by taking it, but the set can be mandatory for the relatively small ones. As the player is the ottos, this can never be a consideration. Move on.
Another pairing could be regarded as Defensive and Offensive; but again, these are not contrary to each other in the game, and it will be beneficial to take both of them for all tags, provided there is no specific surge on the cost of the opportunity.
Then comes the multi-front pairings.
Multi-front pairings
This type of filtering involves combination of factors more than two regarding the choices. The Economy-set is not the counter-parts of the Trade-set; they complement each other. Yet, playing any turbo-tag with Eco-Trade will crush the code by overkilling; for the code, it is beneficial. On the other hand, theirs is the first type of multi-front pairing countering each other.
Trade-set is in the diplomatic group, which means one slot of opportunity. Yet there is the colonising-filter: A coloniser has to take Explo-set, which also provides additional naval force limit by 25%. Moreover, each colony will increase the naval force limit of the overlord even more. The result will be an exponential growth of the limit, effectively reducing the trade steering efficiency by accelerating the decay of the navy tradition. The decay can be slowed by having larger proportion of light-trade-ships within the naval force protecting the trade at nodes; therefore an increase in naval force limit will inevitably lower the tradition. A coloniser tag will not be able to prevent this decay with its gigantic naval force limit. Trade-set can be considered to mitigate this loss of income, but then it will cost another set in the diplomatic group. Whether coloniser or not, a tag has to take Diplo-set. Such a scenario makes Explo plus Diplo plus Trade equals to three (3) sets from the diplomatic group, reducing the possible combinations to two with the available permutations 3-3-2 or 2-3-3. The other combinations such as 4-3-1 or 1-3-4 etc. greatly unbalance the potential, and not to mention its low feasibility considering the costs by monarch-point.
Continuing from the coloniser scenario, the tag has to take Expansion, so the administrative group. The player should make a decision between the Humanist or Religious, otherwise the rebellions become unmanageable; regardless of the choice, it costs another administrative set. If one is determined to take Eco-set, then this makes Expansion plus Humanist OR Religious plus Eco equals to three (3) sets from the administrative group. In the end the permutation is locked to 3-3-2, meaning only two (2) slots will remain to choose from the military group. Few tags, which are extraordinarily advantageous, can run with only two sets from the military group. It is therefore playing a coloniser tag requires the prior-planning to determine the run-style.
Moreover, lowered income by low trade steering is not entirely detrimental for colonisers, as these tags will gain tradepower from the colonial subjects in any case. Eco- and Trade-set are useful to mitigate any problems of economy, but it is not mandatory to take the both, nor they are contradicting each other in their bonuses. Choosing both does cost critically high in terms of the lost opportunities. Therefore the counter of the Explo-set is the Trade-set.
But when the tag is not a coloniser, then the choices are free from Explo-Expansion. In such cases Eco plus Trade is arguably a powerful choice. The importance of it becomes mandatory when the tag does not have enough ports to protect trade to increase the income out of the trade nodes. Even for the ming-, the mughal-, the mamluk-, and the otto-tags, it is a serious consideration when one is determined to spawn the Global Trade. On the other hand, such tags can enjoy the benefits of being large and wide, thus they can hyper-increase their production income to meet the deficiency in trade income.
In a scenario of tags with naval potential but few ports, it is still required to have a powerful navy, including large number of light-trade-ships. The solution is the secret weapon: Maritime-set. This set opens with right away increasing the navy tradition gain from protecting trade by 100%, effectively reducing the decay. A tag with Maritime-set can even reach beyond and turn the decay on navy tradition into growth. It also provides 50% more naval force limit, and additional bonuses on sailor numbers, trade range, and ship tradepower propagation. A coloniser-tag will not have the opportunity to choose this, just as a tag with Trade-set; all are from the diplomatic group. Therefore, the multi-front pairing is a decision between Explo-Trade-Maritime.
For the ottos, the choice is simple. Not a coloniser, therefore Explo is out, thus the contra-pairing is Trade or Maritime.
The other multi-front consideration is in the administrative group. When colonising, Expansion has to be taken, and only a few tags can afford not doing so; but when taken, then one (1) slot is spent out of the administrative group. The run has to include a set from Humanist or Religious, therefore another slot. There is no need to bother again discussing Admin-set; it is never to be chosen. Then there remains only two sets; out of the two, Eco-set are already covered.
Yes, the last one to cover, and the most critical choice: Innovative. The multi-front pairing to decide upon becomes Eco-Inno-any-diplo-or-mil-set. A coloniser cannot afford both Eco and Inno; for any other tag that can afford the duo, considering also whether Humanist or Religious, then the available permutations reduce to 3-3-2 or 3-2-3.
When Inno-set is taken in the first-3, any tag will become comfortable in advancing the technology. Yet most tags in Europa will not need it, since the institutions will spawn and spread faster due to the large number of tags therefore the large number of capital provinces. Yet, when chosen in Europa, the tag will become a formidable power. A malwa- or ethiopia- or inca-tag will definitely need it, but the decision depends on circumstances of their run. A great horde or kazan or ayutthaya or shogun run will have problems due to timing. But as the ming, the mughal, and the mamluks, it is the ultimate power-move. Any idea set does in any case boost the potential for such turbo-tags.
But the ming has to have Humanist; colonisers have to have Explo-Expansion; the mamluks have to have Maritime; the mughals, the butua, the inca, the aztec have to have Eco; the muscovy has to have Trade; the hre-austria has to have Diplo and/or Influence; in any case all tags need Diplo.
And back to the ottos; they are not in dire need of any ideas; any of the sets does make it powerful just as the others, just as for any turbo-tag. The code-ottos generally goes with absurd openers as Admin and Influence and still can be formidable, because of its inherent geographical advantage. Yet, sometimes, code-ottos make the power-move, opening with Inno-set.
But for the player, playing the ottos, having already chosen Diplo and Aristo, then proceeding with Inno-set; as the code is falling down into oblivion, there is not much for you to save it from itself.
The code has no chance.
The ideas will return, as the subject has more to discuss. That is, if the run can be sustained long enough. Because the player is the otto-tag. Once the mil-tech 10 is enabled, all will fall.
The ming-tag is too far away, the muscovy- and the france-tags are ineligible, the castile-tag is already beaten and lost its pu over aragon long ago, the austria-hungary-tag is not able to win the imperial election, the emperor-bohemia-tag resumes its silent-run;
The heir dies by the chronic disease of hunting accident, but it does not matter any more, as the pseudo-random number generator presents another 12-candidate;
Treasury is over 1900 ducats even after building-spree, income is more than 30 ducats;
74k standing army, 90k reserve manpower, even after the crushing defeat;
Ahead of tech, no need to embrace institution.
The rest is, well, a routine procedure.
Just as the code, your moves do not listen to the ticks of the time, not any more, until there is no more. It is almost a motor-reaction by now, when you declare war on qara qoyunlu to complete the Anatolia mission leg.
You do not even notice when the music starts.
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[*] The Smoke of the album Eclipse by Amorphis (2006)
Minor appropriation on the lyrics, for only one word
Edit 17.10.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical, typographical, factual mistakes.
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It's interesting that the Ottomans actually lost.
Is the narrator a robot? I don't know why,, but it feels like one. "runtime errors" and the like
Is the narrator a robot? I don't know why,, but it feels like one. "runtime errors" and the like
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- 1
Yes, the wars of north africa are always hectic, and the one in Chapter X was no different, as it is always problematic to march towards west africa over iberia or through egypt while sieging.
But the wargoal of getting-quick-ducats was achieved, and as a bonus the target morocco-tag survived still; fair enough, let portugal-tag enjoy the day.
Will not answer it.
Considering that your first allegation-claim was the death of the Fourth Wall, will assume this as your recognition and acceptance of the story.
Will take this as a great compliment in that case, as it is phase complete [*] for the author.
[*] phase complete: An ordinary phrase in english, but here quoted directly from Cannon Fodder, Sensible Software, 1993
- 1
Book I - Chapter XII
When rapidly marching over the wet streets to reach the destination, it is easy to miss the view of the surroundings. The droplets are unforgiving by the speed they blast over the concrete, over the roofs, over the lights, over the vehicles, over the heads. The ears catch all the waves of all the frequencies of all the sources, yet the perception is limited due to the filtering of the moment within the physical, chemical, genetic capabilities. Besides the spectrum that can be heard, the perceived memory of the time also plays the mind to miss the actual, leaving out the considerable amount from what is happening. One attempt to diffuse the confusion is to turn and to look above and to see, as the visual input can help the audible. The radiating, silent, individual lights remain alone, and the dark is ever omnipotent, ever reaching, ever limitless.
The rain does not stop, and after a while, your ears adjust, and the noise joins the norm of the silence.
Sorting the errors out of the run has made it clearer for the questions: It started with the dissatisfaction of the initial answers you devised. You defined the basis with the assumptions as the control volume, then proceeded with the elements of the possible answers. They collapsed under the analysis. The result was more dissatisfying than before, therefore an imaginary solution was assumed to resume the analysis. New parameters were identified for the elements of the procedure. At the same time, an intermediate focus was achieved to help explaining the core of the question, indicating the key.
The key. It is the design of the simulation. The map holds the key. The simulation runs through time over the map. The strategy is born from the details that the simulation provides.
But the illusion was broken before, as you accused it not being a simulation. You were distracted by mind-jumps through the subjects that the accusation brought into more questions. You were able to find the metadata of where the hopes failed, thus the new parameters were re-examined, re-questioned, re-evaluated for clarity. It has been admitted within infinite-loops that it is a simulation.
From denying it to accepting it being a simulation. You are obviously fighting the battle on multiple fronts, thus your explanations are convoluted.
The acceptance comes with the technical capabilities of the code. Similar to an expert system the code is capable of processing various inputs to provide appropriate outputs within an acceptably short amount of time giving the effect of simultaneous moves.
The rejection on the other hand is about the game aspect. The code is not only a system of equations for the functions to imitate the populations within the timeframe it is designed for; it is a simulation game.
In between stands the design of the simulation.
You have to exit the loop to resume, as you still do not know why you are playing this game.
Regardless of the definitions, the details under its assumptions, simplifications, abstractions can make it only as realistic as possible, but not the real. It is therefore unreasonable to expect that so-called historicity from any simulation game that imitates the entities over a certain period of time; and you never expected the real from the simulation game.
In return, the code behaves exactly as it is supposed to be: A realistic depiction, and it can never be a real-process. It can approach the limit of the real, it can surpass it, it can fall behind it, thus it can provide plausible realism, but it can never be the real-world process, so the history it cannot be. Otherwise, if the real-process is known, when the exact inputs are input, then the exact outputs are output; therefore it could not be a simulation game, nor a simulation would be required in that case. Then why would you accuse it for not being a simulation in the first place? Was the subject of simulation the reason?
A simulation can only approach the real-process it models, but that is not due to its definition. The limitation of the model is the motivation behind the simulation: To find out the variation of the parameters in the real-process, as the knowledge is lacking for they are unknown. At this juncture, the subject at hand diverges from the analogy. The flow of fluid particles, with either Direct Numerical Simulation for the full-scope of the time-variant parameters, or simulations with turbulence modelling for unsteady turbulent-scale, or hybrid of the two as Large Eddy Simulations, or, or, or… The list is bounded by only the infinity of the curious minds. In either case, the question of the analogy-example is the motion of the fluid, the flow-variables of the fluid, the prediction of the past, present, future of the fluid.
Return to the subject at hand: The simulation of the populations within a timeframe over a map. The parameters, the functions, the models are wildly different than the motion of fluid particles. No, they only share the name as simulation, but they are not comparable. Their objectives are distinct from each other. This is not the reason to accuse the code for not being a simulation. For whatever purpose this simulation is designed, it may or may not perform, as it depends on the assumptions, simplifications, abstractions it has; but it is not only a simulation, since it is a simulation game. A grand strategy by her strong simulation elements.
Yes, the game. Was to question why you play this game the reason for that aggressive claim?
Back again to another infinite-loop, and now you do know that answering this will introduce yet another route in the ever-stretching course you are jumping over. But it stands there, the exit from the loop, as you claimed it. It is behind the key.
The arcade-absurdities.
It was never about the technical quality of the coding nor of the depiction. For the latter as such, beyond the populations, even individuals can be simulated, for her cousin demonstrated it; instead of the player assuming the role of one individual with certain numbers just as a fantasy role playing, either on paper else in lines of code, crusader kings provides the role to the player but interacting with tens of thousands of others. The volatile chaotic non-linear functions the human beings are, but they can be represented with certain assumptions, simplifications, abstractions as numbers and functions and conditionals. But in the case of this game, the simulated entities are over individuals up to populations.
It is about the outliers in the basis of the design within the flow of the numbers.
The outliers, which can be regarded still acceptable as flavour, despite the inherent problem of their determinism just to make the simulation as if the real out of its actual scope of realism; they are there embedded within the code. They can be disregarded, but the chain-reaction of their combined effect creates the problem. Not the history, not the simulation elements in the quality of the plausible realism, but the underlying design.
Why you play this game despite the arcade-absurdities, you do not know.
The clicks are heard, then the run starts. Your hands are still glimmering with the cold particles of water left while walking under the rain. Strange, as you do not know when you were outside, nor when you came back.
Hello ottos.
Despite your uninteresting, mundane, ordinary run, the code falls.
Treasury is up to 3000 ducats now, thanks to the unshakable economy but also the payments from the other tags you fought in the recent wars. The economy is boosted with the increased trade, and all you did was conquest, albeit limited. The spread of institution shows that about 1300 ducats to embrace it.
No. There is no need. Otherwise the code will cease to operate. Maybe it already has.
But… You still have the least amount of the hope for the code, even though it is crawling through its sorrowing despair. Proceed with construction of four more manufactories and trade company investments. More shipyards, more trade-ships, and a couple of workshops.
The herald arrives, informing that the ming-tag has lost the control of the south. You rub your eyes, slowly, silently, nervously. Even if it can regain it, even if it can rise as a great power, even if it can run as a turbo-tag, the ming is too far away. It may come back, so that it can be a valid target for rivalry, but your patience for the code is no more. Carry on.
Comet sighted, and the people are panicked. You wish you lived in more enlightened times. Which people, by the way, you do not know.
Monarch-points accumulate, and you kept your conquests under control, therefore time to enable the ideas from the latest chosen; the Inno-set. The second idea is the Empiricism, increasing the innovativeness gain by 50% percent. This is not a weak neither a light nor a trivial gain as it may seem. Innovativeness provides flat reduction on all power costs, and it is not time-limited nor conditional. Power on.
Heralds arrive, and the england-tag is now the leading power of the anglican-church. Then france declares war on her nemesis. Yes, you read it correct. The date shows it is 1521. Probably the event of Maine was resolved by a truce instead of the unification war of the last century; the code-france could find the opportunity only now to begin its offensive. Check england; yes, her allies abandoned her, for whichever reason.
The event of Great Constructions happens, and Mimar Sinan joins the court as a famous architect but is represented only by a modifier for lowered costs of constructions and development. Huh. You have already ordered buildings to construct, and the opportunity is missed, but it does not matter. Check the court, and the 12-monarch selim is about 60 years old. The event modifier is only until the death of the ruler, so it will not be there for any significant effect. The newest heir was provided as another 12-monarch, with the name… süleyman. How interesting. Whatever. Order more shipyards and more workshops to construct. Carry on.
Of course the economy will rise, except for the surge of random-events or wars draining it. The only direction of the economy-vector is upwards, as there is no expense other than for the advisors, the forts, and the military. The infrastructure is an amalgamation of futuristically unbreakable, uncanny, unchanging buildings, never to run-down without any maintenance. Forget the buildings; who are working in those, who are paying taxes and producing and trading and… Eh. Whatever. The name of the game is warfare.
Whatever, and another event happens. Expand the Royal Bureaucracy. This otto-specific event shakes the stability down by two, but its effect is a devastating power, providing 10% reduction on the tech-cost and ideas for forty (40) years. Power on.
Your ally declares war on her neighbour. Wait. Ah yes. Besides the five (5) marches, you still have the two others, an ally and a guarantee, as they are too distant to vassalise. The beja-tag is there chilling under guarantee in the upper Nile, but the oman-tag grows impatient as ally on the end of Arabia and initiates its offensive against the yas-tag. Fortunately this time the code-oman is not able to call the player-ottos to arms. It is tricky to prevent the code-allies to call the player into their never-ending and unreasonable wars, but possible when one stays vigilant. For the future, you have to take measures to avoid such unwanted situations.
The basic mechanism behind the alliances is the favour-trust. Favours accumulate in time in small integers based on the relative power, and trust is built even slower. Answering the call-to-arms will allow higher favour-trust gain in short time. High trust is necessary for the defensive wars, otherwise the allies will abandon. The favours are necessary to call the allies to the offensive wars. As a turbo-tag, the player will not be in dire need for allies except disastrous-scenarios, and as a general rule, the player should avoid code-allies. In any regard, when allied, the available mechanism to prevent being called into wars is unchecking the condition, effectively disabling the code to call the player. But this stops the favour gain, as well as building the trust between the tags.
The solution is simple: Attitudes. Yes, another reason for the Diplo-set. With additional diplomats, one can increase the opinions of more tags at the same time, and the Diplo-set even boosts the monthly increase while improving the opinion. The objective is to have at least 50 opinion with the target.
Suppose playing the switzerland-tag and allying the france-tag. In that case the player-switzerland desperately needs the code-france, but the latter has its own agenda. It can suddenly attack the castile-tag, or aragon-tag, or england-tag, or even worse, an hre-tag, dragging the player with it. The last example means a war against an hre-tag and its allies, along with the emperor-probably-austria-tag and all its allies. One cannot simply uncheck to disallow offensive option to render the call-to-arms null in order to avoid such hysterical moves of the code-ally, as this will limit the opportunity of the player-switzerland to call the code-france back by hindering the favour gain. Worse, it will stop building trust, thus the code-france can even turn against the player-switzerland.
The solution is, back again, increasing the opinions with all potential targets. Achieve +50 opinion. Check the attitudes-tab, and set it manually to Friendly with the potential target. Now, the code can never call the player to its never-ending, meaningless, irrelevant wars against that target. Only care is needed for the allies of the target that is set as Friendly. Setting it manually to Friendly will give -60 as reason not to call the ally. The beauty in this case is that even if the relations deteriorate later, the player attitude remains same as Friendly, as it is set manually instead of being automatically decided by the code.
Yes, that is the trick of the code, and the player can use it back against the code. Suppose an alliance with the papal states, and the player plans to attack the code-ottos. But war-declaration window tells that the ally, the code-papacy, is not going to accept the call. Hovering on the cross explains it: It is either in debt, or fighting in another war, or target too far, or none of them but… Attitude Towards Enemy; -60, meaning the code-papacy has Friendly attitude towards the code-ottos in the example. So the player can never call the code-papacy as an ally against the target. Then, as the player, increase relations with all other italy-tags, as well as with the provence-tag, and any other rivals of the code-papacy. Set the Attitude as Friendly once the relations reach +50. The code-papacy can never call the player against those for any of its wars. Of course, this will not work if the player and the code share a rival, with which the relations cannot be improved to set as Friendly.
Back to the ottos: The player is the ottos, and you absolutely do not need to be called to any war by your allies, if you still have any. But maintaining high trust is still beneficial, as it also increases the chance of vassalisation. Improve the opinion of all potential neighbour-targets of the oman-tag for Friendly relations so it cannot drag you into madness. This will buy some time before the vassalisation distance is reached, so the oman-tag will not rely on the player to grow larger. It will still declare wars on its own, or it can find a target, with which the player has Neutral attitude, and call to arms. Such wars are trivial but patience-exhausting, but moreover, the ally can grow larger than before, to the point that it will not be possible to vassalise. So it is a run against time.
But you are the ottos. If oman-alliance becomes unmanageable, then you will drop it. Current situation is fine. Go ahead, oman, conquer yas.
It is 1525, and the 12-monarch selim is no more. Pay the janissaries, of course. The new 12-monarch süleyman assumes the reign, and the tech-advancement informs that mil-level 11 has arrived. It is still six (6) years ahead, and the Colonialism is not embraced yet; so the costs are 60 plus 25 equals 85% more expensive than usual. And you are the ottos, having a 12-monarch, enabled Diplo and Aristo-set; tech-cost reduction by Inno-set is not achieved yet but it will be soon. Some more reductions by events, but innovativeness, plus dhimmi estate, so even if 85% more expensive, they are still affordable. Yes. The code is falling down, and every one of your moves, despite being far below the full potential of what the otto-tag has, has accelerated this downfall inevitably.
You shake your head, while retaining the slight hope, yet extremely naïve it looks as the time advances. You rub your forehead, but it seems unavoidable. You breathe out in exhaustion, and there is not much to do to help the code, but to carry on.
1526 begins, and the institution cost is down to about 400 ducats. Declare war on the last valid rival, then embrace Colonialism, and advance in mil-tech, so the conquests will provide power projection. If done before the war, then the rivalry will cease prior to war, so no power projection can be gained. You are not able to save the code, so run with the faint hope, but benefit from the little amount of what is remained from it in the meantime.
Well, the reason is that after the war, with very high probability, as the fall of the last one, no eligible candidate will remain. At best, all will flip between being a rival and not as the run proceeds further.
Hello, mamluks. Yes, for the second time, and there will be more, until the silence is ever more.
[*]
[*] The Sound of Silence, from the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. by Simon & Garfunkel (1965)
Appropriated the lyrics on the images.
Edit 07.07.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical mistakes.
The rain does not stop, and after a while, your ears adjust, and the noise joins the norm of the silence.
Sorting the errors out of the run has made it clearer for the questions: It started with the dissatisfaction of the initial answers you devised. You defined the basis with the assumptions as the control volume, then proceeded with the elements of the possible answers. They collapsed under the analysis. The result was more dissatisfying than before, therefore an imaginary solution was assumed to resume the analysis. New parameters were identified for the elements of the procedure. At the same time, an intermediate focus was achieved to help explaining the core of the question, indicating the key.
The key. It is the design of the simulation. The map holds the key. The simulation runs through time over the map. The strategy is born from the details that the simulation provides.
But the illusion was broken before, as you accused it not being a simulation. You were distracted by mind-jumps through the subjects that the accusation brought into more questions. You were able to find the metadata of where the hopes failed, thus the new parameters were re-examined, re-questioned, re-evaluated for clarity. It has been admitted within infinite-loops that it is a simulation.
From denying it to accepting it being a simulation. You are obviously fighting the battle on multiple fronts, thus your explanations are convoluted.
The acceptance comes with the technical capabilities of the code. Similar to an expert system the code is capable of processing various inputs to provide appropriate outputs within an acceptably short amount of time giving the effect of simultaneous moves.
The rejection on the other hand is about the game aspect. The code is not only a system of equations for the functions to imitate the populations within the timeframe it is designed for; it is a simulation game.
In between stands the design of the simulation.
You have to exit the loop to resume, as you still do not know why you are playing this game.
Regardless of the definitions, the details under its assumptions, simplifications, abstractions can make it only as realistic as possible, but not the real. It is therefore unreasonable to expect that so-called historicity from any simulation game that imitates the entities over a certain period of time; and you never expected the real from the simulation game.
In return, the code behaves exactly as it is supposed to be: A realistic depiction, and it can never be a real-process. It can approach the limit of the real, it can surpass it, it can fall behind it, thus it can provide plausible realism, but it can never be the real-world process, so the history it cannot be. Otherwise, if the real-process is known, when the exact inputs are input, then the exact outputs are output; therefore it could not be a simulation game, nor a simulation would be required in that case. Then why would you accuse it for not being a simulation in the first place? Was the subject of simulation the reason?
A simulation can only approach the real-process it models, but that is not due to its definition. The limitation of the model is the motivation behind the simulation: To find out the variation of the parameters in the real-process, as the knowledge is lacking for they are unknown. At this juncture, the subject at hand diverges from the analogy. The flow of fluid particles, with either Direct Numerical Simulation for the full-scope of the time-variant parameters, or simulations with turbulence modelling for unsteady turbulent-scale, or hybrid of the two as Large Eddy Simulations, or, or, or… The list is bounded by only the infinity of the curious minds. In either case, the question of the analogy-example is the motion of the fluid, the flow-variables of the fluid, the prediction of the past, present, future of the fluid.
Return to the subject at hand: The simulation of the populations within a timeframe over a map. The parameters, the functions, the models are wildly different than the motion of fluid particles. No, they only share the name as simulation, but they are not comparable. Their objectives are distinct from each other. This is not the reason to accuse the code for not being a simulation. For whatever purpose this simulation is designed, it may or may not perform, as it depends on the assumptions, simplifications, abstractions it has; but it is not only a simulation, since it is a simulation game. A grand strategy by her strong simulation elements.
Yes, the game. Was to question why you play this game the reason for that aggressive claim?
Back again to another infinite-loop, and now you do know that answering this will introduce yet another route in the ever-stretching course you are jumping over. But it stands there, the exit from the loop, as you claimed it. It is behind the key.
The arcade-absurdities.
It was never about the technical quality of the coding nor of the depiction. For the latter as such, beyond the populations, even individuals can be simulated, for her cousin demonstrated it; instead of the player assuming the role of one individual with certain numbers just as a fantasy role playing, either on paper else in lines of code, crusader kings provides the role to the player but interacting with tens of thousands of others. The volatile chaotic non-linear functions the human beings are, but they can be represented with certain assumptions, simplifications, abstractions as numbers and functions and conditionals. But in the case of this game, the simulated entities are over individuals up to populations.
It is about the outliers in the basis of the design within the flow of the numbers.
The outliers, which can be regarded still acceptable as flavour, despite the inherent problem of their determinism just to make the simulation as if the real out of its actual scope of realism; they are there embedded within the code. They can be disregarded, but the chain-reaction of their combined effect creates the problem. Not the history, not the simulation elements in the quality of the plausible realism, but the underlying design.
Why you play this game despite the arcade-absurdities, you do not know.
The clicks are heard, then the run starts. Your hands are still glimmering with the cold particles of water left while walking under the rain. Strange, as you do not know when you were outside, nor when you came back.
CHAPTER XII
Hello ottos.
Despite your uninteresting, mundane, ordinary run, the code falls.
Treasury is up to 3000 ducats now, thanks to the unshakable economy but also the payments from the other tags you fought in the recent wars. The economy is boosted with the increased trade, and all you did was conquest, albeit limited. The spread of institution shows that about 1300 ducats to embrace it.
No. There is no need. Otherwise the code will cease to operate. Maybe it already has.
But… You still have the least amount of the hope for the code, even though it is crawling through its sorrowing despair. Proceed with construction of four more manufactories and trade company investments. More shipyards, more trade-ships, and a couple of workshops.
The herald arrives, informing that the ming-tag has lost the control of the south. You rub your eyes, slowly, silently, nervously. Even if it can regain it, even if it can rise as a great power, even if it can run as a turbo-tag, the ming is too far away. It may come back, so that it can be a valid target for rivalry, but your patience for the code is no more. Carry on.
Comet sighted, and the people are panicked. You wish you lived in more enlightened times. Which people, by the way, you do not know.
Monarch-points accumulate, and you kept your conquests under control, therefore time to enable the ideas from the latest chosen; the Inno-set. The second idea is the Empiricism, increasing the innovativeness gain by 50% percent. This is not a weak neither a light nor a trivial gain as it may seem. Innovativeness provides flat reduction on all power costs, and it is not time-limited nor conditional. Power on.
Heralds arrive, and the england-tag is now the leading power of the anglican-church. Then france declares war on her nemesis. Yes, you read it correct. The date shows it is 1521. Probably the event of Maine was resolved by a truce instead of the unification war of the last century; the code-france could find the opportunity only now to begin its offensive. Check england; yes, her allies abandoned her, for whichever reason.
The event of Great Constructions happens, and Mimar Sinan joins the court as a famous architect but is represented only by a modifier for lowered costs of constructions and development. Huh. You have already ordered buildings to construct, and the opportunity is missed, but it does not matter. Check the court, and the 12-monarch selim is about 60 years old. The event modifier is only until the death of the ruler, so it will not be there for any significant effect. The newest heir was provided as another 12-monarch, with the name… süleyman. How interesting. Whatever. Order more shipyards and more workshops to construct. Carry on.
Of course the economy will rise, except for the surge of random-events or wars draining it. The only direction of the economy-vector is upwards, as there is no expense other than for the advisors, the forts, and the military. The infrastructure is an amalgamation of futuristically unbreakable, uncanny, unchanging buildings, never to run-down without any maintenance. Forget the buildings; who are working in those, who are paying taxes and producing and trading and… Eh. Whatever. The name of the game is warfare.
Whatever, and another event happens. Expand the Royal Bureaucracy. This otto-specific event shakes the stability down by two, but its effect is a devastating power, providing 10% reduction on the tech-cost and ideas for forty (40) years. Power on.
Your ally declares war on her neighbour. Wait. Ah yes. Besides the five (5) marches, you still have the two others, an ally and a guarantee, as they are too distant to vassalise. The beja-tag is there chilling under guarantee in the upper Nile, but the oman-tag grows impatient as ally on the end of Arabia and initiates its offensive against the yas-tag. Fortunately this time the code-oman is not able to call the player-ottos to arms. It is tricky to prevent the code-allies to call the player into their never-ending and unreasonable wars, but possible when one stays vigilant. For the future, you have to take measures to avoid such unwanted situations.
The basic mechanism behind the alliances is the favour-trust. Favours accumulate in time in small integers based on the relative power, and trust is built even slower. Answering the call-to-arms will allow higher favour-trust gain in short time. High trust is necessary for the defensive wars, otherwise the allies will abandon. The favours are necessary to call the allies to the offensive wars. As a turbo-tag, the player will not be in dire need for allies except disastrous-scenarios, and as a general rule, the player should avoid code-allies. In any regard, when allied, the available mechanism to prevent being called into wars is unchecking the condition, effectively disabling the code to call the player. But this stops the favour gain, as well as building the trust between the tags.
The solution is simple: Attitudes. Yes, another reason for the Diplo-set. With additional diplomats, one can increase the opinions of more tags at the same time, and the Diplo-set even boosts the monthly increase while improving the opinion. The objective is to have at least 50 opinion with the target.
Suppose playing the switzerland-tag and allying the france-tag. In that case the player-switzerland desperately needs the code-france, but the latter has its own agenda. It can suddenly attack the castile-tag, or aragon-tag, or england-tag, or even worse, an hre-tag, dragging the player with it. The last example means a war against an hre-tag and its allies, along with the emperor-probably-austria-tag and all its allies. One cannot simply uncheck to disallow offensive option to render the call-to-arms null in order to avoid such hysterical moves of the code-ally, as this will limit the opportunity of the player-switzerland to call the code-france back by hindering the favour gain. Worse, it will stop building trust, thus the code-france can even turn against the player-switzerland.
The solution is, back again, increasing the opinions with all potential targets. Achieve +50 opinion. Check the attitudes-tab, and set it manually to Friendly with the potential target. Now, the code can never call the player to its never-ending, meaningless, irrelevant wars against that target. Only care is needed for the allies of the target that is set as Friendly. Setting it manually to Friendly will give -60 as reason not to call the ally. The beauty in this case is that even if the relations deteriorate later, the player attitude remains same as Friendly, as it is set manually instead of being automatically decided by the code.
Yes, that is the trick of the code, and the player can use it back against the code. Suppose an alliance with the papal states, and the player plans to attack the code-ottos. But war-declaration window tells that the ally, the code-papacy, is not going to accept the call. Hovering on the cross explains it: It is either in debt, or fighting in another war, or target too far, or none of them but… Attitude Towards Enemy; -60, meaning the code-papacy has Friendly attitude towards the code-ottos in the example. So the player can never call the code-papacy as an ally against the target. Then, as the player, increase relations with all other italy-tags, as well as with the provence-tag, and any other rivals of the code-papacy. Set the Attitude as Friendly once the relations reach +50. The code-papacy can never call the player against those for any of its wars. Of course, this will not work if the player and the code share a rival, with which the relations cannot be improved to set as Friendly.
Back to the ottos: The player is the ottos, and you absolutely do not need to be called to any war by your allies, if you still have any. But maintaining high trust is still beneficial, as it also increases the chance of vassalisation. Improve the opinion of all potential neighbour-targets of the oman-tag for Friendly relations so it cannot drag you into madness. This will buy some time before the vassalisation distance is reached, so the oman-tag will not rely on the player to grow larger. It will still declare wars on its own, or it can find a target, with which the player has Neutral attitude, and call to arms. Such wars are trivial but patience-exhausting, but moreover, the ally can grow larger than before, to the point that it will not be possible to vassalise. So it is a run against time.
But you are the ottos. If oman-alliance becomes unmanageable, then you will drop it. Current situation is fine. Go ahead, oman, conquer yas.
It is 1525, and the 12-monarch selim is no more. Pay the janissaries, of course. The new 12-monarch süleyman assumes the reign, and the tech-advancement informs that mil-level 11 has arrived. It is still six (6) years ahead, and the Colonialism is not embraced yet; so the costs are 60 plus 25 equals 85% more expensive than usual. And you are the ottos, having a 12-monarch, enabled Diplo and Aristo-set; tech-cost reduction by Inno-set is not achieved yet but it will be soon. Some more reductions by events, but innovativeness, plus dhimmi estate, so even if 85% more expensive, they are still affordable. Yes. The code is falling down, and every one of your moves, despite being far below the full potential of what the otto-tag has, has accelerated this downfall inevitably.
You shake your head, while retaining the slight hope, yet extremely naïve it looks as the time advances. You rub your forehead, but it seems unavoidable. You breathe out in exhaustion, and there is not much to do to help the code, but to carry on.
1526 begins, and the institution cost is down to about 400 ducats. Declare war on the last valid rival, then embrace Colonialism, and advance in mil-tech, so the conquests will provide power projection. If done before the war, then the rivalry will cease prior to war, so no power projection can be gained. You are not able to save the code, so run with the faint hope, but benefit from the little amount of what is remained from it in the meantime.
Well, the reason is that after the war, with very high probability, as the fall of the last one, no eligible candidate will remain. At best, all will flip between being a rival and not as the run proceeds further.
Hello, mamluks. Yes, for the second time, and there will be more, until the silence is ever more.
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[*] The Sound of Silence, from the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. by Simon & Garfunkel (1965)
Appropriated the lyrics on the images.
Edit 07.07.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical mistakes.
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- 1
You don't know why you're playing EU4... but why does it matter? You are, and you're enjoying it.
The Ottomans will have to deal with the Mamluks again soon... let's hope that they can triumph.
The Ottomans will have to deal with the Mamluks again soon... let's hope that they can triumph.
- 1
That conflict in the game can resume well until diplo-tech 23 when determined to devour mamluks - or devour ottos as mamluks. That is, if one is not willing to eat the aggro-exp early. But ultimately it depends on the patience: A run with ottos-tag would hardly proceed until that age; in this run, it has not been 100 years, and the saturation level is already about there.
Yes, that may seem understandable, but a summary is required now to remind:
Prologue
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
...and further in Chapter XI
- 1
Book I - Chapter XIII
The water particles fall from the sky of grey, ever colder it becomes without the light of day. The condensation reaches the dew point, through the mechanisms of cooling, again caused by the motion of large bodies of air packages with water molecules, becoming heavier with precipitation, then falling out to the surface. The cooling on the other hand is through various mechanisms but primarily by the deficit of light. The sun is the primary source of the heat, thus the angle and the latitude define the change in the temperature, in collaboration with the surface forming the climate patterns on the global scale. Yet it is easy to fall for the false assumptions as the rain would bring the cold weather. They do affect each other, but independent processes govern each of them together.
The arcade-absurdities. It is behind the key.
The code has only numbers, within equations, within loops, within conditionals, within functions, within recursive batches. It reacts according to its pre-determined cases, and with the increasing number of conditionals it is able to withstand the tests against it. It gives the illusion of the reality by operating on the real world-map, so that it can be perceived as simulation with plausible realism. For this, string and graphical functions enrich the data for the receptors, and the flow of pseudo-real time provides the smooth transition of the data transfer. In this frame, the code has the objective to achieve the equilibrium against those tests, or in simpler terms, it optimises to make a move.
With the unpause, the temporal function starts to output, including the accumulation of all other parameters through all other functions the code has. If the equilibrium is reached between the functions of objectives, it will stand still. In order to facilitate the run, additional inputs are given, so that the equilibrium is broken, and a new objective is set for the code to proceed again to reach it.
Therefore the code is also armed with scripted- and random-events, giving it the flavour. The random events are there to disturb any type of equilibrium at any point of any run-time. These are based on probability distribution functions, and some are also designed with pre-determined seeds, but nevertheless, by the pseudo-random number generator of the processors, they trigger at any point in their mean-time to happen. They reflect the unsteady-chaotic part of the functions, with either temporal or other conditional inputs, and in the context of the game, they depict the volatile behaviour of the populations, as well as the natural incidents on the globe. If a crude analogy were to be given, this reflects the turbulence in the flow of fluid particles.
The random-events, pulse-events, periodic-events, with their conditionals, are the necessary inputs of and for the code. Pulse and periodic events have the problem of detached nature from the flow of the code, but even they are acceptable, as they depend on the pseudo-randomised numbers or probability distributions by their definition, and they affect the flow temporarily.
The scripted-events. They can be regarded as the basis problematic parts at initial observation. Some may require certain conditions to trigger, and those can still be acceptable. But there are ones that will happen no matter their conditions, far more than the others, as those prerequisites are always met. Through these, the realistic simulation is tried to set into a course of the real. The aim should be, must be, can only be the realism-simulation, but the design is forced to the impossible concept of the real-simulation.
Regardless of their conditions, the scripted-events are embedded to imitate the process, thus the history as it happened. This is impossible while all other parameters are already varying, and the simulation already models it with the map but only through assumptions, simplifications, abstractions. Moreover, even if such design would achieve the impossible and reach the real, then the simulation would be rendered redundant. It is pointless since the process is the history, for which the inputs and the outputs are assumed as known through the available records, albeit their authenticity, reliability, reality.
As such, when a variation occurs in the inputs, the outputs change; meanwhile the scripted-events happen independent of these changes, and the code reaches the equilibrium without noticing it, making it unable to make a move, incapable to proceed, because it does not have the conditions to run in such cases; when such events are expected but the code cannot realise it, it should change its behaviour. Yet it is not able to do so in the case of varied inputs, because it cannot recalibrate itself back to its scripted-favourable conditions that are hard-coded into its lines.
No amount of random-events can break this forced-equilibrium state. The randomised inputs provide the necessary variation, but the scripted-events try the impossible to happen with such boundary values, to make the flow of the code again the real. Despite pseudo-randomness due to the processor, in such a randomised-run, the code receives the scripted-events by any other means, as the conditions are still met; the code tries to run with those events, unknowing that the parameters change, therefore a different strategy is mandatory; unfortunately, it does not have the capability to alter its moves accordingly. The code is largely unaware of these changes through its run, even though rarely it is able to recalculate, it is unable to meet the new conditions, thus desperately needs more advantages to save the procedure. While trying for the impossible real, that is the history as it happened, the code loses its entire potential of the realism, that is the fiction with historical setting.
What remains is the game.
Variation of the inputs; it is a simulation game, therefore its inputs naturally, inherently, compulsorily change, thus different outputs are achieved as results. It can never be the real, the history as it happened. The realism is provided by the map, yet the mechanics are reduced into only entities with borders. The deterministic sides of the entities are aimed to be minimised in their design as opposed to other games that are regarded as simulation-strategy, but there are scripted-events happening in the course of run of this game. The events provide the flavour, with the random inputs to vary the situation, but the scripted ones try the real on top of this varying flow. The inputs are disrupted, the outputs do not match, yet an equilibrium is reached between entities beyond its capabilities, and the code is unable to devise a new strategy to adapt to the new situation.
There comes the arcade-absurdities.
As the infinite-loop is ever growing, and of the warnings unaware you are missing, the words take the course of the flow of your being.
While you are seeking the answer for why you are playing this game, you do not even question when the icon has been clicked at all.
Hello ottos.
The mission-leg, the Conquest of the Levant, is enacted; but the code is silent in its screams. All rivals fall, and the ottos are not eligible for any rivalry any more.
The last war was the finishing move, as you go overboard with the amount of highly-developed provinces conquered by that war: Only seven (7). Lebanon and Palestine areas are now within the borders, and the new perma-claims are obtained over entire Egypt. The perma-claims over entire Iraq were already provided in previous wars. There is no opposition left in the east. There is no opposition in the west. No possible rivals in the north, nor in the south.
As the run entered the month of December of 1528, there were no rivals left. By the end of the same month, mamluks and poland-lithuania are eligible again. February 1529, and the mamluks fall from rivalry, again; each time giving 20 power projection, but not accumulated. It does not matter any more, also as it has reached the maximum 100, and it will stay as such for at least ten more years. And yes, unfortunately, the power projection is achieved mainly through warfare, by provincial conquests. April 1529, and the mamluks-tag is back to be a valid rival. September 1529, and poland-lithuania is not a valid rival. September 1529, the mamluks-tag announces the player-ottos as new rival. March 1530, and the mamluks-tag is not eligible for rivalry again.
Even if the play-style is limited by the choices, you cannot save the code from its fall. It is not designed to run according to variations, but it is event-driven, conditionally-programmed, pre-determined in its randomness. As much as illogical the last definition seems, the code incapacitates itself by reaching the saturation level not only through its own choices; as miserable as they are, but they are the results of the inherent design it is built upon.
---
The Europa-theatre is determined by the actions of specific-tags, and they are considered as major powers since the game is unfortunately designed such. One specific example; austria-tag is not unique, yet it is the focus of the emperor expansion. It is designed to have a pu over hungary-tag; it is forced to run so, and when this does not happen, the code-austria does not have any capability nor motivation to regain any power to remedy this. This does not have to happen, and the randomness, the variation in outcomes, the different scenarios are expected, so naturally, the austria-tag do, can, should rise or fall just as any other tag, to be replaced by another in the case of defeat. However, the code does not calculate this change of outcome, it is not able to do this, it has no motivation to do this, it has only more advantages.
The unfortunate side is that every other aspect of the game is disproportionately designed for it to thrive but only with such certain tags, in order to achieve a skewed sense of pre-determined-historical course, therefore the code collapses onto itself when it fails in its run to achieve this. Not only causing this chain reaction of collapse, this is impossible to achieve by definition; all the variables as inputs change, and the code is still designed to run through time as it happened in the history while disregarding those changes, therefore becomes incapable by itself.
In this run, the pu happened through an event. It has only an oblique relation to the history; however, the event tries to be similar to the conquest of Kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. The game is not the history, it cannot be, as it is a simulation game through time over map with varying inputs, yet such event-driven results supposedly give some flavour by imitating it, therefore there they are. In spite of the varying inputs, the conditions for the pu were met in this run, thus the pu was formed. Even if the design is as such, on the other hand, this is still favourable for the perspective of the player against the code-austria, since it means a worthy opponent, but more so giving the hope for a sustainable rivalry. The code desperately needs this event to form the pu, as it is advantageous.
Yet, they die quickly.
Even if it gains claims, the code has no inclination to attack poland-lithuania, nor bohemia. Instead, the code chose to ally poland-lithuania. At first, this seemed perfect, and it gave the hope that the code was processing to oppose the player-ottos.
Yet, they lose miserably.
It chose to attack the player; this was a player-mistake, causing the code to initiate a premature-offense. It still gave a thrill, albeit faint, yet it never had a chance, considering the choices made by the code throughout the war.
And these are actually the perfect scenarios of the code to operate according to varying inputs.
In this run, this also happened; at first the austria-hungary lost the election to the bohemia. Then the bohemia-tag attacked the poland-lithuania, causing them to break their alliance. Again perfection, as the run seems to proceed according to varying inputs, such that while the austria was in the process of defeat by the player-ottos, the bohemia-tag used the opportunity to attack; it was even elected as the emperor. Perfect.
Yet, silence.
Silence, as the bohemia-tag, or any other replacement for the imperial throne, does not make a move against its only neighbouring rival, poland-lithuania, or any other tag after that war. For the run, the rivals of bohemia are austria and denmark. It does not attack the former; it cannot even reach the latter. As such, it does not grow in power, and the game runs only through expansion by warfare. Worse side is, it proceeds its run as if still a regular tag; for the case of holy-roman-emperor, such tags devour the hre instead of protecting it, further accelerating the fall. As a result, it does not become an eligible rival for the player while playing a turbo-tag.
That was the reason in getting angry when the austria-tag lost the imperial elections to the bohemia-tag; knowing that a new rivalry will not be created out of this outcome. The randomness in the flow of the code is remarkable but not sufficient, and it is annihilated by the scripted-events, the enormous advantages inherently given to such tags, and it does not have any capability to adapt to such variations in its run. The new emperor-tag remains silent, the austria-tag goes arbitrary-berserking over hre minors; and all because the game is designed only for the austria-tag. For the france-tag. For the castile-spain-tag. For the… Eh. Whatever.
Even if it could grow, the code changes its rivals only when they are completely annexed. When it cannot reach that power, then it does not bother. Silence, while its story is shattering.
Seldomly the code changes rivals, particularly targeting the player. Such rivalries happen even when there is great discrepancy in comparative power. There are only eight great powers at any time in the game. While the first five generally rival each other, as they are close, with the exception of the distant ming-tag, the rest of the great powers change dynamically throughout the run. Staying at sixth and lower in the list of great powers as a player is therefore a reason for the code to change its rivals: As long as both tags are relatively close to and knowing each other, the code will prefer the weakest, and generally the player, because of its advantageous distance-rules applied for rivalry, different than the player. The code-ming can rival the player from the other side of the map, when it discovers the player. Specific examples are playing in the Americas; any code-tag that has taken Explo-set will mark the gold-provinces as vital interest and casually proceeds to rival the player there. Whether they can actually reach the player or not does not matter for the code. But even that is not problematic.
When the player is a turbo-tag, and stays at the top great power, the code will not bother as the difference between powers grows wider and ever; in any case, after a certain level, the player will remain without any valid targets. That is how the rivalry mechanic defines the process of the code, and only for a short while. Therefore unfortunate it is, since many of the rivalries are designed considering only the certain tags to thrive. When such rivalries fall, then the game succumbs into silence, as the code does not effectively replaces such certain tags with other rising-powers.
That is the saturation level.
In this run, the emperor-bohemia-tag is not initiating any attacks against the austria-hungary nor the poland-lithuania. All three are awaiting the player to disrupt the balance of power, so an opportunity can arise. Otherwise the code depends on much needed random-events. Needless to say, as the time proceeds, such events become less effective on the process for the local and the global scales.
---
The nervous waiting begins.
Sending a diplomat to beja-tag to make amends after the war; this time allying them, influencing, giving subsidies, and sending gift to them. There is no possibility to gain high opinion through scornfully insulting any of its rivals, since it is also left without any but due to its weak position and its overtly powerful neighbours. Oh yes, of course by October 1530 the mamluks are eligible for rivalry once again.
The nervous waiting, as the smallest amount of hope is still reserved for what will come in the following decades; yet the hope for the code is fading away by each tick of the time. That certain time, incident, event. Yes, it is tied to the specific example of the austria-tag.
In the meantime, the ruler of the portugal-tag has Malevolent personality attribute; joão the second announces that he will attack the morocco-tag one more time.
Increase the opinion by influence. Hang on; will be back after a short while.
[*]
Anyway, what was the last point?
Yes, the nervous waiting; and during that period, it becomes a routine, an automatic, an instinctive series of player-actions, as there is not much left to help the code, thus you shift the gear. As the code falls, there is no point to linger around, but the vain hope nonetheless calls to wait. So?
During the war by 1532 the vassalisation requirement is reached, and thus, welcome beja, the new vassal. Make her a march, send the officers, take any debts off.
Order one more manufactory to build; one was already under construction during the last mamluks-war; four during the second portugal-war; another two after that.
Checking the opinions of other tags: Aragon-tag shows -50 for heretics. Apparently the Council of Trent has happened. One of the funniest events, causing deadly-laughter. Addition with the emperor expansion, and the negative opinions are set as -20 for each Harsh-type concessions out of the four. This means -80 when the code decides on to be harsh on all. But the player is the ottos. It is a sunni-tag. And it is still applied for all, heretic or heathen. Permanently. Yes. Funny. This may have changed with later expansion of the monstrous leviathan, but who knows what happened to it, and who would care, as it still seems to be a series of arbitrary choices by the code. The player, if extraordinarily lucky to be the curia controller during that event, can enact concessions based on the run-style and even for a story for the game, but it is inherently only opinion modifiers, hurling the code from one extreme to the another.
It is redundant to say that again; the player is the ottos, therefore it does not matter. But for the protestant-tags, and also the orthodox-tags, and even the coptic-tags; from fetishist to tengri, from nahuatl to hindu, from confucian to muslim; the modifier is applied to all, and it is permanent. It hits everyone hard; it is a doom-scenario for a protestant-or-reformed-lübeck, as such a run can end abruptly if the player does not take necessary measures. Coptic-ethiopia, waiting for an alliance with france, after the Council of Trent? Laughing while clicking on the Quit is more productive in such cases. Furthermore, for a protestant-or-reformed coloniser, it is apocalypse. No coloniser can maintain a credible alliance with any code-coloniser in any case. But with Council of Trent modifiers, added to Wants Your Provinces and Wants Your Subject’s Provinces, there is no chance of an alliance between code-catholic-colonisers and any other tag, code or player.
What is more unpredictable is that this affects the rivalries but the code has no idea of how it can avoid nor benefit it. Abrupt rivalries will occur, triggering incredible counter-alliances. Coloniser ring of france-spain-portugal, allied against the code protestants. For the player, such is a remarkable challenge, yet it quickly devolves into an exhaustive chore to overcome. For the code, other tags cannot even dare to touch them, therefore remaining silent. And it does not end there: Council of Trent can result with the maximum positive opinion with Conciliatory-type concessions. Again amazing alliances can occur by the code in return: The pact of russia-ottos, both taking Quantity ideas. Pure misery for the code. Pure burden for the player to defeat them, so that the other code-tags can resume in their process.
Whatever. Move on. Manufactories are under construction, and by 1535, the economy shows forty four (44) ducats in net income, while maintaining still the same military force 74k since decades. Recruit more cannons, a couple of infantry and cavalry; now 84k.
Meanwhile, the total development is about 800, whereas the maximum Governing Capacity is 850. If it is reached over, then there will be severe penalties, so that is to be avoided. Another new concept that came with the emperor-update; a much necessary correction on the incomprehensible, meaningless, unmanageable State Limit; but such late in the design. With the emperor, privileges can be given to the Estates, another update that was much needed, actually necessary, yet that came so late, after all the hopes for the game were gone forever. With privileges, one can increase the Governing Capacity, else one has to wait for Government Reforms – the latter again only a number that accumulates in time just as the technology research, so not a reform in any case, but whatever. The other option is to again wait for the technology to increase the capacity.
But the player is the ottos. The situation is fine, if not insignificant. Tech-level 12 will be next, Early Modern Administration, providing +100 gov-cap. Carry on.
More and more ducats; upgrade the centre of trade in the city to a World Port; it costs thousand (1000) ducats. And heir-event is prompted; another 12-monarch, but 3-5-4, with the name… selim. Bravo code, if only it was a bayezid after the first turbo-ruler mehmed, it would match the series.
Qara qoyunlu is brutalised further by ajam; the attacker forces the former to release the armenia and the karabakh tags as one-province-minors. Quick wars to get two more for the trade companies, but it costs legalism for attacking heathens; a couple of months it takes due to the forts on mountainous area. Onwards to the syria-tag, guaranteed by the qq-tag. Good, as it will provide mysticism in the piety scale to attack on the former, rather than the latter. This one takes about nine months, and it concludes with conquest up to Kirkuk. Full annex the syria-tag, and from qq three provinces for the ottos, two provinces for the march hisn kayfa.
The date shows 1541, and the france-tag tries another round on the england-tag. Yes, the code has a turbo-queen of 17-monarch, a 6-5-6 regent, 83k, fighting against both the england and the muscovy, yet it is still not even in the list of eligible rivals for the player-ottos. The run is on the crash-course of saturation.
Whatever. By 1542, twenty manufactories have been constructed. This means another generic mission, Proto Industrialisation, 10% production efficiency for 25 years. Worth to mention is what comes with the mission: Gain 1,5 years of income. For the player, this amounts to about two thousand three hundred (2300) ducats. This means… yes, order for constructing even more manufactories, trade company investments, more trade-ships. That is the standard strategy, but the code has no chance at all since decades, so this is done out of only habit at this point of the run. World Port for trade company in former Trebizond, now Trabzon. The trade company of the Crimea-node controls more than 50% of the trade, which provides additional merchant to be send to that node. The net income reaches about fifty three (53) ducats. Power on.
Admin-tech 12 arrives by 1544; the trade node of the city is rich enough, so there remains no necessity to keep the genoa-tag on the Aegean islands for bonus in goods produced. In any case there is still the venice-tag in Crete. The genoa-tag has also accumulated enormous amounts of aggro-exp against the player-ottos, so its removal will relieve the constant-opinion-increase task. It had lost all its possessions except the islands of Scio and Cafa in Crimea too. That means full annexation; it takes a couple of months to say farewell to the genoa-tag.
In the meantime, certain portions of the map become visible, as the herald brings the news of spreading discoveries over the east of Europa. Muscovy-tag also discovers the player apparently.
A new rival, the muscovy-tag. Finally, but too late.
The muscovy, but still not formed the russia-tag. What is worse, no other tag in the region has any motivation nor incentive to outpace the tag. They just wait. And why would the player-ottos care about the code-muscovy, that has not formed the russia-tag still by 1547?
Yes, the muscovy, but still not the russia-tag. The reason?
Because it is allied to the ryazan-tag since the beginning it seems. The code cannot enact the decision without owning the provinces of its ally. Thus it will stay as its relatively weaker condition of principality, while no other tag will try to replace that power in that region. The Siberia will also be left empty too, since no other tag has any design to expand over there.
A new rival, but too distant, too ineffective, too irrelevant at this condition.
[**]
[*] Neverlast, from the album Heart Like A Grave, by Insomnium (2019)
[**] Convoy, from the soundtrack of Sicario, by Jóhann Jóhannsson (2015)
Edit 07.07.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical, semantic, typographical mistakes. Reduced the image size.
The arcade-absurdities. It is behind the key.
The code has only numbers, within equations, within loops, within conditionals, within functions, within recursive batches. It reacts according to its pre-determined cases, and with the increasing number of conditionals it is able to withstand the tests against it. It gives the illusion of the reality by operating on the real world-map, so that it can be perceived as simulation with plausible realism. For this, string and graphical functions enrich the data for the receptors, and the flow of pseudo-real time provides the smooth transition of the data transfer. In this frame, the code has the objective to achieve the equilibrium against those tests, or in simpler terms, it optimises to make a move.
With the unpause, the temporal function starts to output, including the accumulation of all other parameters through all other functions the code has. If the equilibrium is reached between the functions of objectives, it will stand still. In order to facilitate the run, additional inputs are given, so that the equilibrium is broken, and a new objective is set for the code to proceed again to reach it.
Therefore the code is also armed with scripted- and random-events, giving it the flavour. The random events are there to disturb any type of equilibrium at any point of any run-time. These are based on probability distribution functions, and some are also designed with pre-determined seeds, but nevertheless, by the pseudo-random number generator of the processors, they trigger at any point in their mean-time to happen. They reflect the unsteady-chaotic part of the functions, with either temporal or other conditional inputs, and in the context of the game, they depict the volatile behaviour of the populations, as well as the natural incidents on the globe. If a crude analogy were to be given, this reflects the turbulence in the flow of fluid particles.
The random-events, pulse-events, periodic-events, with their conditionals, are the necessary inputs of and for the code. Pulse and periodic events have the problem of detached nature from the flow of the code, but even they are acceptable, as they depend on the pseudo-randomised numbers or probability distributions by their definition, and they affect the flow temporarily.
The scripted-events. They can be regarded as the basis problematic parts at initial observation. Some may require certain conditions to trigger, and those can still be acceptable. But there are ones that will happen no matter their conditions, far more than the others, as those prerequisites are always met. Through these, the realistic simulation is tried to set into a course of the real. The aim should be, must be, can only be the realism-simulation, but the design is forced to the impossible concept of the real-simulation.
Regardless of their conditions, the scripted-events are embedded to imitate the process, thus the history as it happened. This is impossible while all other parameters are already varying, and the simulation already models it with the map but only through assumptions, simplifications, abstractions. Moreover, even if such design would achieve the impossible and reach the real, then the simulation would be rendered redundant. It is pointless since the process is the history, for which the inputs and the outputs are assumed as known through the available records, albeit their authenticity, reliability, reality.
As such, when a variation occurs in the inputs, the outputs change; meanwhile the scripted-events happen independent of these changes, and the code reaches the equilibrium without noticing it, making it unable to make a move, incapable to proceed, because it does not have the conditions to run in such cases; when such events are expected but the code cannot realise it, it should change its behaviour. Yet it is not able to do so in the case of varied inputs, because it cannot recalibrate itself back to its scripted-favourable conditions that are hard-coded into its lines.
No amount of random-events can break this forced-equilibrium state. The randomised inputs provide the necessary variation, but the scripted-events try the impossible to happen with such boundary values, to make the flow of the code again the real. Despite pseudo-randomness due to the processor, in such a randomised-run, the code receives the scripted-events by any other means, as the conditions are still met; the code tries to run with those events, unknowing that the parameters change, therefore a different strategy is mandatory; unfortunately, it does not have the capability to alter its moves accordingly. The code is largely unaware of these changes through its run, even though rarely it is able to recalculate, it is unable to meet the new conditions, thus desperately needs more advantages to save the procedure. While trying for the impossible real, that is the history as it happened, the code loses its entire potential of the realism, that is the fiction with historical setting.
What remains is the game.
Variation of the inputs; it is a simulation game, therefore its inputs naturally, inherently, compulsorily change, thus different outputs are achieved as results. It can never be the real, the history as it happened. The realism is provided by the map, yet the mechanics are reduced into only entities with borders. The deterministic sides of the entities are aimed to be minimised in their design as opposed to other games that are regarded as simulation-strategy, but there are scripted-events happening in the course of run of this game. The events provide the flavour, with the random inputs to vary the situation, but the scripted ones try the real on top of this varying flow. The inputs are disrupted, the outputs do not match, yet an equilibrium is reached between entities beyond its capabilities, and the code is unable to devise a new strategy to adapt to the new situation.
There comes the arcade-absurdities.
As the infinite-loop is ever growing, and of the warnings unaware you are missing, the words take the course of the flow of your being.
While you are seeking the answer for why you are playing this game, you do not even question when the icon has been clicked at all.
CHAPTER XIII
Hello ottos.
The mission-leg, the Conquest of the Levant, is enacted; but the code is silent in its screams. All rivals fall, and the ottos are not eligible for any rivalry any more.
The last war was the finishing move, as you go overboard with the amount of highly-developed provinces conquered by that war: Only seven (7). Lebanon and Palestine areas are now within the borders, and the new perma-claims are obtained over entire Egypt. The perma-claims over entire Iraq were already provided in previous wars. There is no opposition left in the east. There is no opposition in the west. No possible rivals in the north, nor in the south.
As the run entered the month of December of 1528, there were no rivals left. By the end of the same month, mamluks and poland-lithuania are eligible again. February 1529, and the mamluks fall from rivalry, again; each time giving 20 power projection, but not accumulated. It does not matter any more, also as it has reached the maximum 100, and it will stay as such for at least ten more years. And yes, unfortunately, the power projection is achieved mainly through warfare, by provincial conquests. April 1529, and the mamluks-tag is back to be a valid rival. September 1529, and poland-lithuania is not a valid rival. September 1529, the mamluks-tag announces the player-ottos as new rival. March 1530, and the mamluks-tag is not eligible for rivalry again.
Even if the play-style is limited by the choices, you cannot save the code from its fall. It is not designed to run according to variations, but it is event-driven, conditionally-programmed, pre-determined in its randomness. As much as illogical the last definition seems, the code incapacitates itself by reaching the saturation level not only through its own choices; as miserable as they are, but they are the results of the inherent design it is built upon.
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The Europa-theatre is determined by the actions of specific-tags, and they are considered as major powers since the game is unfortunately designed such. One specific example; austria-tag is not unique, yet it is the focus of the emperor expansion. It is designed to have a pu over hungary-tag; it is forced to run so, and when this does not happen, the code-austria does not have any capability nor motivation to regain any power to remedy this. This does not have to happen, and the randomness, the variation in outcomes, the different scenarios are expected, so naturally, the austria-tag do, can, should rise or fall just as any other tag, to be replaced by another in the case of defeat. However, the code does not calculate this change of outcome, it is not able to do this, it has no motivation to do this, it has only more advantages.
The unfortunate side is that every other aspect of the game is disproportionately designed for it to thrive but only with such certain tags, in order to achieve a skewed sense of pre-determined-historical course, therefore the code collapses onto itself when it fails in its run to achieve this. Not only causing this chain reaction of collapse, this is impossible to achieve by definition; all the variables as inputs change, and the code is still designed to run through time as it happened in the history while disregarding those changes, therefore becomes incapable by itself.
*
In this run, the pu happened through an event. It has only an oblique relation to the history; however, the event tries to be similar to the conquest of Kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. The game is not the history, it cannot be, as it is a simulation game through time over map with varying inputs, yet such event-driven results supposedly give some flavour by imitating it, therefore there they are. In spite of the varying inputs, the conditions for the pu were met in this run, thus the pu was formed. Even if the design is as such, on the other hand, this is still favourable for the perspective of the player against the code-austria, since it means a worthy opponent, but more so giving the hope for a sustainable rivalry. The code desperately needs this event to form the pu, as it is advantageous.
Yet, they die quickly.
Even if it gains claims, the code has no inclination to attack poland-lithuania, nor bohemia. Instead, the code chose to ally poland-lithuania. At first, this seemed perfect, and it gave the hope that the code was processing to oppose the player-ottos.
Yet, they lose miserably.
It chose to attack the player; this was a player-mistake, causing the code to initiate a premature-offense. It still gave a thrill, albeit faint, yet it never had a chance, considering the choices made by the code throughout the war.
And these are actually the perfect scenarios of the code to operate according to varying inputs.
In this run, this also happened; at first the austria-hungary lost the election to the bohemia. Then the bohemia-tag attacked the poland-lithuania, causing them to break their alliance. Again perfection, as the run seems to proceed according to varying inputs, such that while the austria was in the process of defeat by the player-ottos, the bohemia-tag used the opportunity to attack; it was even elected as the emperor. Perfect.
Yet, silence.
Silence, as the bohemia-tag, or any other replacement for the imperial throne, does not make a move against its only neighbouring rival, poland-lithuania, or any other tag after that war. For the run, the rivals of bohemia are austria and denmark. It does not attack the former; it cannot even reach the latter. As such, it does not grow in power, and the game runs only through expansion by warfare. Worse side is, it proceeds its run as if still a regular tag; for the case of holy-roman-emperor, such tags devour the hre instead of protecting it, further accelerating the fall. As a result, it does not become an eligible rival for the player while playing a turbo-tag.
That was the reason in getting angry when the austria-tag lost the imperial elections to the bohemia-tag; knowing that a new rivalry will not be created out of this outcome. The randomness in the flow of the code is remarkable but not sufficient, and it is annihilated by the scripted-events, the enormous advantages inherently given to such tags, and it does not have any capability to adapt to such variations in its run. The new emperor-tag remains silent, the austria-tag goes arbitrary-berserking over hre minors; and all because the game is designed only for the austria-tag. For the france-tag. For the castile-spain-tag. For the… Eh. Whatever.
*
Even if it could grow, the code changes its rivals only when they are completely annexed. When it cannot reach that power, then it does not bother. Silence, while its story is shattering.
Seldomly the code changes rivals, particularly targeting the player. Such rivalries happen even when there is great discrepancy in comparative power. There are only eight great powers at any time in the game. While the first five generally rival each other, as they are close, with the exception of the distant ming-tag, the rest of the great powers change dynamically throughout the run. Staying at sixth and lower in the list of great powers as a player is therefore a reason for the code to change its rivals: As long as both tags are relatively close to and knowing each other, the code will prefer the weakest, and generally the player, because of its advantageous distance-rules applied for rivalry, different than the player. The code-ming can rival the player from the other side of the map, when it discovers the player. Specific examples are playing in the Americas; any code-tag that has taken Explo-set will mark the gold-provinces as vital interest and casually proceeds to rival the player there. Whether they can actually reach the player or not does not matter for the code. But even that is not problematic.
When the player is a turbo-tag, and stays at the top great power, the code will not bother as the difference between powers grows wider and ever; in any case, after a certain level, the player will remain without any valid targets. That is how the rivalry mechanic defines the process of the code, and only for a short while. Therefore unfortunate it is, since many of the rivalries are designed considering only the certain tags to thrive. When such rivalries fall, then the game succumbs into silence, as the code does not effectively replaces such certain tags with other rising-powers.
That is the saturation level.
In this run, the emperor-bohemia-tag is not initiating any attacks against the austria-hungary nor the poland-lithuania. All three are awaiting the player to disrupt the balance of power, so an opportunity can arise. Otherwise the code depends on much needed random-events. Needless to say, as the time proceeds, such events become less effective on the process for the local and the global scales.
---
The nervous waiting begins.
Sending a diplomat to beja-tag to make amends after the war; this time allying them, influencing, giving subsidies, and sending gift to them. There is no possibility to gain high opinion through scornfully insulting any of its rivals, since it is also left without any but due to its weak position and its overtly powerful neighbours. Oh yes, of course by October 1530 the mamluks are eligible for rivalry once again.
The nervous waiting, as the smallest amount of hope is still reserved for what will come in the following decades; yet the hope for the code is fading away by each tick of the time. That certain time, incident, event. Yes, it is tied to the specific example of the austria-tag.
In the meantime, the ruler of the portugal-tag has Malevolent personality attribute; joão the second announces that he will attack the morocco-tag one more time.
Increase the opinion by influence. Hang on; will be back after a short while.
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Anyway, what was the last point?
Yes, the nervous waiting; and during that period, it becomes a routine, an automatic, an instinctive series of player-actions, as there is not much left to help the code, thus you shift the gear. As the code falls, there is no point to linger around, but the vain hope nonetheless calls to wait. So?
During the war by 1532 the vassalisation requirement is reached, and thus, welcome beja, the new vassal. Make her a march, send the officers, take any debts off.
Order one more manufactory to build; one was already under construction during the last mamluks-war; four during the second portugal-war; another two after that.
Checking the opinions of other tags: Aragon-tag shows -50 for heretics. Apparently the Council of Trent has happened. One of the funniest events, causing deadly-laughter. Addition with the emperor expansion, and the negative opinions are set as -20 for each Harsh-type concessions out of the four. This means -80 when the code decides on to be harsh on all. But the player is the ottos. It is a sunni-tag. And it is still applied for all, heretic or heathen. Permanently. Yes. Funny. This may have changed with later expansion of the monstrous leviathan, but who knows what happened to it, and who would care, as it still seems to be a series of arbitrary choices by the code. The player, if extraordinarily lucky to be the curia controller during that event, can enact concessions based on the run-style and even for a story for the game, but it is inherently only opinion modifiers, hurling the code from one extreme to the another.
It is redundant to say that again; the player is the ottos, therefore it does not matter. But for the protestant-tags, and also the orthodox-tags, and even the coptic-tags; from fetishist to tengri, from nahuatl to hindu, from confucian to muslim; the modifier is applied to all, and it is permanent. It hits everyone hard; it is a doom-scenario for a protestant-or-reformed-lübeck, as such a run can end abruptly if the player does not take necessary measures. Coptic-ethiopia, waiting for an alliance with france, after the Council of Trent? Laughing while clicking on the Quit is more productive in such cases. Furthermore, for a protestant-or-reformed coloniser, it is apocalypse. No coloniser can maintain a credible alliance with any code-coloniser in any case. But with Council of Trent modifiers, added to Wants Your Provinces and Wants Your Subject’s Provinces, there is no chance of an alliance between code-catholic-colonisers and any other tag, code or player.
What is more unpredictable is that this affects the rivalries but the code has no idea of how it can avoid nor benefit it. Abrupt rivalries will occur, triggering incredible counter-alliances. Coloniser ring of france-spain-portugal, allied against the code protestants. For the player, such is a remarkable challenge, yet it quickly devolves into an exhaustive chore to overcome. For the code, other tags cannot even dare to touch them, therefore remaining silent. And it does not end there: Council of Trent can result with the maximum positive opinion with Conciliatory-type concessions. Again amazing alliances can occur by the code in return: The pact of russia-ottos, both taking Quantity ideas. Pure misery for the code. Pure burden for the player to defeat them, so that the other code-tags can resume in their process.
Whatever. Move on. Manufactories are under construction, and by 1535, the economy shows forty four (44) ducats in net income, while maintaining still the same military force 74k since decades. Recruit more cannons, a couple of infantry and cavalry; now 84k.
Meanwhile, the total development is about 800, whereas the maximum Governing Capacity is 850. If it is reached over, then there will be severe penalties, so that is to be avoided. Another new concept that came with the emperor-update; a much necessary correction on the incomprehensible, meaningless, unmanageable State Limit; but such late in the design. With the emperor, privileges can be given to the Estates, another update that was much needed, actually necessary, yet that came so late, after all the hopes for the game were gone forever. With privileges, one can increase the Governing Capacity, else one has to wait for Government Reforms – the latter again only a number that accumulates in time just as the technology research, so not a reform in any case, but whatever. The other option is to again wait for the technology to increase the capacity.
But the player is the ottos. The situation is fine, if not insignificant. Tech-level 12 will be next, Early Modern Administration, providing +100 gov-cap. Carry on.
More and more ducats; upgrade the centre of trade in the city to a World Port; it costs thousand (1000) ducats. And heir-event is prompted; another 12-monarch, but 3-5-4, with the name… selim. Bravo code, if only it was a bayezid after the first turbo-ruler mehmed, it would match the series.
Qara qoyunlu is brutalised further by ajam; the attacker forces the former to release the armenia and the karabakh tags as one-province-minors. Quick wars to get two more for the trade companies, but it costs legalism for attacking heathens; a couple of months it takes due to the forts on mountainous area. Onwards to the syria-tag, guaranteed by the qq-tag. Good, as it will provide mysticism in the piety scale to attack on the former, rather than the latter. This one takes about nine months, and it concludes with conquest up to Kirkuk. Full annex the syria-tag, and from qq three provinces for the ottos, two provinces for the march hisn kayfa.
The date shows 1541, and the france-tag tries another round on the england-tag. Yes, the code has a turbo-queen of 17-monarch, a 6-5-6 regent, 83k, fighting against both the england and the muscovy, yet it is still not even in the list of eligible rivals for the player-ottos. The run is on the crash-course of saturation.
Whatever. By 1542, twenty manufactories have been constructed. This means another generic mission, Proto Industrialisation, 10% production efficiency for 25 years. Worth to mention is what comes with the mission: Gain 1,5 years of income. For the player, this amounts to about two thousand three hundred (2300) ducats. This means… yes, order for constructing even more manufactories, trade company investments, more trade-ships. That is the standard strategy, but the code has no chance at all since decades, so this is done out of only habit at this point of the run. World Port for trade company in former Trebizond, now Trabzon. The trade company of the Crimea-node controls more than 50% of the trade, which provides additional merchant to be send to that node. The net income reaches about fifty three (53) ducats. Power on.
Admin-tech 12 arrives by 1544; the trade node of the city is rich enough, so there remains no necessity to keep the genoa-tag on the Aegean islands for bonus in goods produced. In any case there is still the venice-tag in Crete. The genoa-tag has also accumulated enormous amounts of aggro-exp against the player-ottos, so its removal will relieve the constant-opinion-increase task. It had lost all its possessions except the islands of Scio and Cafa in Crimea too. That means full annexation; it takes a couple of months to say farewell to the genoa-tag.
In the meantime, certain portions of the map become visible, as the herald brings the news of spreading discoveries over the east of Europa. Muscovy-tag also discovers the player apparently.
A new rival, the muscovy-tag. Finally, but too late.
The muscovy, but still not formed the russia-tag. What is worse, no other tag in the region has any motivation nor incentive to outpace the tag. They just wait. And why would the player-ottos care about the code-muscovy, that has not formed the russia-tag still by 1547?
Yes, the muscovy, but still not the russia-tag. The reason?
Because it is allied to the ryazan-tag since the beginning it seems. The code cannot enact the decision without owning the provinces of its ally. Thus it will stay as its relatively weaker condition of principality, while no other tag will try to replace that power in that region. The Siberia will also be left empty too, since no other tag has any design to expand over there.
A new rival, but too distant, too ineffective, too irrelevant at this condition.
[*] Neverlast, from the album Heart Like A Grave, by Insomnium (2019)
[**] Convoy, from the soundtrack of Sicario, by Jóhann Jóhannsson (2015)
Edit 07.07.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical, semantic, typographical mistakes. Reduced the image size.
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