This is where it ends

[filcat]

When the shining of the bright closes the eye, and the dark glimmers with the sparkling hope beyond the sky, the sorrowing fear begins. The words had to be created, the work had to be forged, the dreams had to be brought into the day of the real. Yet nothing has been done, the story sits over there; but this does not involve the banal explanations of the obstruction, the obstacles of the mind for further conception, the pervasive lethargy of the procrastination.

No, it does not. Yet, it is unfinished, and the need to write is there, awaiting. The force that halts the fingers to dance, the words to conjure, the story to develop; it simply comes from the pain. The pain is there, and all diversion is born out of it.

The chances for escaping from the existence of the paralysing distress do not look promising, it seems this desolation will not go away soon. There has to be another way to deal with it. It will be found, devised, shaped, as the vectors of the space are discovered, and the never-vector, but scalar time, shall hurl itself into its only direction.

In the meantime, then, what?

No, it has to be said, no to that program, no to that software, no to that game! Never again, it was screamed from the depths of the hatred, to the horizons of the events, and the light could not even escape. No, as it was a bleak piece of black hole, exhausted its hydrogen, completely devoid of its premise, now stands still in the middle of the non-existence, devouring all on its way, while still spurting even more additions to its code.

...

Go online. Install. It was significantly easier before, as one had to go and buy. Say hello to the ones that pass-by. A pretty girl would smile. A nasty salesman would greet. Choose the box, according to its art, not that the details of the game would be known. A magazine had to be purchased, opened, read, for the game to learn about. No time for that. They were fun to read nevertheless. No information prior to purchase, now choose the box. Buy. Head home. Say hello to another person. Install. It was then, now it is different. Go online, and this is uncomfortable. What if the net is out of connection, what if there is no transmission, what if there is no electrification. Forced attempt on rhymes, making the line incomprehensible. The phonology comes always first in the mind, but one day that will fail. Forget the rhythmic word-mancer spells, another reason glows with the obvious sparks. You do not want to go online.

Installation complete. Go offline. Play. Sigh with a deep breath, as there are launchers, with delirious offerings and commercials and advertisements. Will they ever understand that their collective onslaught of maniacal efforts to sell will never work? No, they will not, because being a sample of one, and the rest of the set will provide the net earnings, further proving the efficiency of their wrathful attempts in their mind.

Again, Play. This time the echo is forwarded, and the program finally starts. The opening art comes forward, filling the screen. Yes, the memories come alive, and they are greeting the already tired eyes with the full screen beauty they hide. They scream the hopes of a time from forever ago, and readily prompts the disappointment after those years had passed. Yes, the program starts, the map is seen, and it is not the game you want to play. You already jumped from the ship into the icing waters of reality, when the emperor was born; you never had the endurance, calmness, nor the fortitude to even check the monster, named leviathan. Its death was already pronounced in the mind, with thunderous screams, before that. Yet, here it is, with all the additions since the beginning, until the notorious emperor.

You do not want to play it. Yet, hit single player. Always. Never multiplay, never use mods. And never ironman. Never. It may be the times of fall, the life may not forward itself as it is wished for, the future may seem bleak, but under no circumstances there will be a deficit of self-respect, to make the choice of ironman run. There is no need. The times infinite years ago, the sufferings are remembered, and now they call it the ironman mode. Smile, grin, laugh, and bitter memories go away, as there was not a save feature for many of the games back then. Few would come with a password to proceed where the player leaves it, and most would not have even such. Crawled through those torturing moments, yet the prince running from a platform to another in the middle of a fantasy-induced-persia was legendary. But, never again. Those are left in the past. Let them live in the graveyard of nostalgia. It is now, and there is no force in universe to convince you for an ironman run.

Which tag, now is the question. The first love. No, it may end even before the play is hit. The timurs, you remember their misery before the cradle of civilization, and then they fell from grace even deeper. That is a binary tag, either disintegrate completely, otherwise run over entirely. The call of destiny. No, there is no time, no will, and certainly no patience for a venice forever. The empire of horror. No, as the last memory in the mind is prompted, and it was another inheritance madness of the burgundy. No desire for austria run, nor another raging-meltdown. The lucky strike. Then the colonisation aspect is remembered, no. If there is no patience for venice, then there is absolute extreme of the same feeling for the iberians. The fight for hundred years. A sudden grin, as if that would be true. It lasts about ten years in the game, if the player wants it as such. Otherwise, it is a quick couple-of-years-war. No to england, no to france tags. Then the oranges? Good to say, it is time to eat some fruit. And no, the sentiment for colonisation is already declared, so no to holland. The standard destroyer tags of the sub-continent? No, no aspirations for an india-madness. The symphony of doom? Dealing with pomeranians is not the problem; there is no mood for brandenburg, and the imperial business.

It has been already more than an hour, and the look of map is ever more beautiful. The game has not even started; not even a tag has been chosen, let alone decided. Then once again it becomes clear, the reason of the love for the game, now it is only a faint memory. But it was there. The reason was, as always, the map. Maps, outlines, sketches, atlas, globe, projection; borders, rivers, mountains, plains, prairie, grassland, savannah, steppes, wetland, marsh, tundra.

You do love maps.

Scroll the globe. No. No. Not that. Not this. Definitely not that one. Never this. The hour, the moment, the time is running out. Eyes are closed, eyes are reopened. Probably the tags already considered, they will be played. Again. Sighing, with no patience available, there is only one tag left, you realise.

There is no turning back, as the play is hit.

---

-BİR-​

Hello ottos.

It has been a very long time.

No, do not smile, still hating the game. Have no patience, only to blow off some stress. That is why you exist in the game in anyway, ottos. To not have a need to worry about the run.

Before taking any actions: Turn off those ugly music from sabaton. Still cannot believe self how they were purchased in any case. Yes, thank you.

Eh. Serenity. Now your own music has already started in the mind. Shuffle. It will get there. It does mix up with the game's default soundtrack. Lower the sound-level of the game. Hyper-increase the sound-level of the mind.

Make corrections on the map options. Disable some of the messages, especially the prompt for gaining a casus belli. Otherwise you will be bombarded with hundreds of them, whenever a tag starts to pirate the player, and then gives up. Then pirates again. Yes, that one is still there.

Setup complete. Check the estates. Eyes are closed, then reopened. Give privileges. It is the ottos. No need to be shy. Do not forget the Supremacy Over The Kingdom. Seize the land, before the initial unpause.

Yeah, the kingdom. You remember now, as the emperor came, the ottos became a kingdom, instead of sultanate. With king mehmed.

No. No need to choose rivals already. Rivals. The game before the rivalry mechanic was... interesting. Now, it is... interesting. Anyway. It is the ottos. No need to trigger the hatred of all tags before the unpause. There is no need for a rival for now. Except mamluks. Hello ma'am. Embargo.

Diplomacy. Hah. It is the ottos. Ottos do not need alliances. Protecting ragusa. Yeah, right. Goodbye, ragusa. Check anatolia-tags. Sons of ramazan, sons of dulkadir, gather around. How about royal marriages? Cool. And the third diplomat goes to... byza- roman empire, or what is left from her. Send warning first, then start to work. Work on that claim. As if there is a need for it, but it is redundant to start a world-war-of-punishment by no-cb at this point. The game starts right after one of them, you do know that. Let there be claims, and no headaches.

Check advisors. Branimir Sorkochovich, statesman, providing +1 diplo-rep. Thank you, Branimir. The others, do not care; there is no commandant, and there is no artist. The rest do not matter at this point. In the pool of available advisors, there are ones that provide manpower, additional force limit, and missionary strength. You take a brief pause for a long laughter. Then come back, and order three more galleys, to have ten in total. After that, you continue to laugh a bit longer. Force limit. For ottos. For faqs sake.

Well, all is set. As the unpause command is ordered, the music is already chosen in the mind. You grin. The ottos smile back at you. Your grin falls. Do not smile, ottos, this is not a return. The ottos become sad.

Spoiler: Well, the remix starts first.

[*]​

The time runs, as the unpause releases the force of the nature. The days, the weeks, the months pass, and alliances are made with the sons of ramazan and dulkadir. And this is the only period you keep your alliances, you know it, the code knows it, even the music knows it. The reason is the mission tree of the ottos, which is a mix of generic and specialised legs. And there it is, when the tag has two alliances with +150 opinion, another +1 diplo-rep.

You send the diplomats to the beyliks, once again, but with a proposition: Be a vassal, or face the consequences. The sons of ramazan are ready since yesterday, but for the ones of dulkadir, they need extra 4k troops of you to train for persuasion.

"Greetings from Edirne, King Mehmed salutes you."
"King?"
"Long story. Just assume it is still sultan. By the way, nice lands you got here. How about you and we, let's make this kingo-vassalo, yeah?"
"Da faq. That word-bastardisation-play, that did not work mate. Also, the answer is no."
"...We have 34k troops."
"..."
"Yeah."
"Where do I sign, my liege?"

Then, send the diplomat to... hisn kayfa. This turbo-chad-opm is the best vassal you can get. The downside is, there are lots of sheeps around (so smooth filcat, so smooth). Yes, aq qoyunlu, your time will come. For the time being, do not attack, on, over, around, anywhere near hisn kayfa. And trebizond. No, thank you for the tea. It is 1444 by the way, so the tea is not there yet. Take your anachronism elsewhere.

Yes, vassalise hisn kayfa, then ally trebizond and theodoro. Meanwhile, you already have two vassals, now three. This means another privilege, which broke the game even further (as if it can be broken any more. Err... wait- then came leviathan. Yeah. It can be, apparently.): Strong Duchies. Two more relations, minus ten (-10%) liberty desire. Hah.

What is there to do any more? Is the claim for the city ready? Yes. Vassals are ready. 12k more troops, of which 8k are janissary regiments. Yes, they do cost military points. No, no need to panic, it is the ottos. Force limit reached. Anatolia mission, check. Nice perma-claims. Force limit generic mission, check. Cool, 5% morale. Roman empire made alliance with... serbia. Check. Now rivals can be chosen. Maybe. Perhaps a waltz in hungarian plains, then a rococo in venetian islands.

That is it. Why, you start to ask now. It was only to deal with some stress, you already know it. The music intensifies. Then the original is searched in the mind. Go through the archives. Found it. All right then.

Spoiler: ...So it begins.

[**]​

[*] Remix of God's Gonna Cut You Down, original by Johnny Cash, from the soundtrack for the trailer of Battlefield 1, DICE (2016)
[**] God's Gonna Cut You Down, single by Johnny Cash (2003); video released posthumously (2006); originally folk song. Appropriated lyrics on the images.

Edit 13.01.2025: Corrected stylistic, formatting, semantic, typographical, grammatical mistakes. Corrected the links. Changes on the threadmark, after restructuring the story. Correction on missing words.

 

[filcat]

Why is there the urge to push that icon, twice, rapidly, without thinking for a second?

The map is only one reason, even though it is the greatest one. But this does not satisfactorily answer the delirious nature of this lunacy. Being under stress can be understood to a certain extent. For a while, it is possible to lose the self within the shining, colourful, adventurous bits of the graphics. The thrill of the action can serve as a proper reason as well.

None of it explains the actual urge. The pain of the stress is there, the sweet nectarine of the map is there, the sound of the mouse-clicks is there. Is it, nostalgia?

No, it cannot be. Really? How it can be possible, as it does not fulfil the conditions. It has not been that much of time. Herzog zwei satisfies that condition, but not this one. Then, is it the nostalgia of a past never happened? No, these were the moments for a game that could reach a potential in the mind. The hope for a code. The aspiration for a program. The invaluable dreams of a decision matrix that can match the skills of the human player.

Yes, that was it. That is why starcraft and such would never earn the respect of the mind, as it became, right from its beginning, a game of physical coordination, rather than a strategy. It is needless to add that it could never be a simulation of any type. The civ dynasty was dead, buried, and disintegrated into its atoms, to mix with the molecules of other beings under the ground. Will it ever be again? No, with this type of player base, and its design choices for its development, it will never be. Never was a strategy, never will be a simulation. Total wars? Well, that one requires a bit more scrutinising to decide upon. It does have necessary mechanics to become a simulation, rather than an ordinary game of strategy. Yet, its course of design made a sharp turn, went head-on into the full absurdity of fantasy lands. Hammer of the war, out of all options. No, it can never survive from its deep abyss, as its masters tasted the ecstasy of gold, and they seem to go into even deeper in that infinite hole of nullity.

But this one? It had given all the hope for the player that it could be a great simulation. Hundreds of tags, a bit strenuous necessity on the physical mouse-keyboard-eye coordination, yet powerful dynamics between the code and the player for decision-making, as well as strong simulation elements. Yet, the simulation side was always outshined by her cousin, crusader kings, and she would always shy behind the shadow of her. The ultimate simulation is the ck, and this one is the close-contender, the sweetheart, the darling.

Well, it was. It was, as with each iteration, it slid into the mudlands of the arcade, and even lost its claim for being a strategy. When the fourth had arrived, the frowning was already retained permanently. Nevertheless, a chance it deserved, and it was given. Then came the additions on the program.

It was broken already, as it is futile to re-open the case of the bugs. But with the expansions... Each of them supposedly introduced a much needed remedy, while in fact each took away all of its potential forever, dooming the code into the cage of an arcade. Yes, it has become an arcade, with very limited elements of strategy. It can never be considered as a simulation, not any more, and the current conditions show that it will never be.

That is it. The nostalgia for a long lost love. A memory of the past that never occurred. The hope for a future that will never happen. That is why, you hit the mouse button, while the cursor is on the icon. Twice, rapidly.

---

CHAPTER I​

Hello again, ottos. Drop that smile. This is not a return, said this before.

The specifics. Otherwise the vague words will overwhelm the reality.

The reason for vassals is a simple mathematical equation. It does require some equations to further support the claim, yet those will be avoided. In the words replacing the numbers, the player cannot handle every move of the code, as the presence of the mind overcomes the maximum skills one may possess. It can only focus on a single subject at hand. It may deal with multiple points, yet the screen-visor can only look at a certain portion of the map, and the simultaneous actions will lower the performance of the brain when compared to undertaking a single action. Even if the player has a brain-organ-neuron-cells-physical-training above the average, the potential will be limited by the screen focus. The mathematics come at this point: The code can proceed with the calculation of input-output matrices infinitely faster than the human. Infinite, is not an exaggeration, but a reasonable assumption. It is therefore the human player requires the help of the code while dealing with the code, as there will always be a part of the map overlooked by the eyes, the ears, the mind, thus will be lost to the engaged code.

No, one cannot rely on allies in these games, and certainly not with these lines of codes. The current conditionals of the code are deterministic; the random nature is supported by terrible and arbitrary events; and all of them in any case not pure, but pseudo-random generated, as they are the product of the digital processor. The code will send the call-to-arms as soon as it has enough favours of you. After the monstrous expansion, who knows what happened to that mechanic, as currying-favours was in the talks, but the personal interest was already obliterated before its release. No idea how it is now, but until-and-with the emperor, it passively increased in time, and by answering to the call for any type of war, and by giving lands to allies in peace deals. Or not with the defensive wars, perhaps. Who knows, but not caring bars the necessity to be curious about it any more.

Never ally, and never stay allied, as the code will call into its pointless wars, and will keep the player out of action until it achieves whatever it calculates as an objective. Seldomly the result will be beneficial for the player, but this is not enough incentive for taking that risk.

...and ottos?

No. Ottos never require any type of allies, from the start to the end. The only time player-ottos keeps alliances is at the beginning, and that is for the mission leg to achieve that aforementioned extra diplo-rep. For the other times, it is only due to the fact that some tags will not be vassalised easily. That is the only moment when there will be an alliance for the player-ottos. Only until the ally is vassalised. Allying france-tag? Hah. Is this a role-play of historic-course? What next? Supporting the independence of sweden? Has anyone heard of council of trent? Bold, as the game is not a simulation, but an arcade, that does not allow such delicacies to the player. And kudos, for trying to role-play this arcade-game; such enthusiasm is enviable. Regardless; instead, the french-tag, when allied, will take the Defender of Faith, and it will still come to help against the player, whenever an attack is planned on another co-religionist of the same french-tag. Besides, that is nothing. The french-tag will call the player-ottos when it wants to attack, for example, genoa. The war may take ten years, and this is only an optimistic estimate. That code-french-tag does not even prolong its war against the code-english-tag for that long. In the end, it may take one province, perhaps, or even nothing, except 10% war rep. Not even lump sum of ducats to share. The player will be in utter loss with such an alliance.

Never ally, but vassalise. It is the ottos. There is no need for an alliance.


The other specific part is, the religion. Ottos are sunni. Surprise.

There is the mechanic legalism-mysticism for the muslim faiths in the game. To this day, since the conception of the mechanic, which had undergone some changes, but does not matter; to this day, still not understanding what this is supposed to mean. No. None of the answers satisfies a proper explanation for it. And no, gave up trying to understand whatever it means, very long time ago. At the end of the day, only the mechanics remain. It is a ridiculously designed one, and only the most powerful muslim tags can afford to use it for its full potential. This excludes all tags in Africa, except the mamluks, and every other muslim tags in Asia, except the timurids. This means that the legalism-mysticism mechanics can be properly used only by three tags. Yes, the third one is the ottos.

The benefits of the mechanic are various, and judging by those, and its semi-controllable nature, it is still not the worst, such as the shinto mechanics, which completely depend on events. Instead, the muslim mechanics depend on decisions whenever a new ruler assumes the control, or with pseudo-random events, or... war targets. True faith targets throw the slider to the mystic side by a measly -16, or sometimes, -33 (generally when the target has high opinion of the player), but heretic and heathen targets will push towards the legalist side by a consistent +25.

That is the reason why as the ottos, the player has to target the heretics or heathens at the beginning of the game. To achieve high legalism. Why? Oh, right, the benefits. The legalism will give higher tax, manpower, and... technology cost reduction. Add this to the dhimmi estate bonus, and the ottos are the only tag to properly benefit from that estate, then the reason becomes as obvious as the sunshine. As the time passes, and the technology levels reach about 8 to 9, there will be no need for further use. But there is still one more benefit, that is the high legalist or mystic case.

Above +75 or below -75, an action becomes available. For the case of high legalism by +75, Enforce Faithful Adherence action is there to choose, reducing the corruption by 2. The result is obvious. Debase the currency, and push the button. For the case of high mysticism by -75, there is the Call on Religious Followers. Double the yearly manpower. As if the ottos would require that. But this will be beneficial in the future of the tag, yet not at the beginning of the run. In the beginning, the economy is good enough, but not rich. The technology costs are high, even with a turbo-ruler. So, legalism it is, meaning initial targets shall be heretics, or heathens.

There is one last specific detail for the ottos, again about its religion. Muslim faiths can invite scholars. That is right, this is the main reason for those vassals, but of muslim faith. The benefits are again various, with the most important ones as the jafari school, giving +10% shock damage, and the hanbali school, giving -10% aggro-exp. The maliki -10% dev-cost is notable, the zaidi -10% shock damage received does never hurt to keep in the pocket. The rest is only circumstantial. That being the case, in the beginning, that is the other reason for keeping hisn kayfa as vassal, by +1 merchant of the shafi'i school. The cost of invitation is 50 admin, and the ottos can afford it. The merchant should be sent to crimea node, and that is it.

Yes, that is it about the advantages of the ottos. And the topic of ideas has not even been mentioned yet. That will come later. On the other hand, there are some points to mention, regarding the religion. There have been always the case of coptic, orthodox, or even catholic otto-runs in the past, since the development of the religions. About such adventures, the broadcast will continue after a brief break.

- leaves the workstation, begins to laugh.
Coptic ottos. Laughter intensifies.
Orthodox ottos. Laughter level reaches screaming.
Catholic ottos. Falling on the ground, cannot stop laughing. -
- A couple of hours later -​

Yes, ahem, moving on.



Explanation, reasoning, description, summarising, justifying. It becomes too much, and the map is still staring. The war for the city is over, and another mission leg is succeeded, giving even more perma-claims. The next target is the isolated epirus. Poor lads, designed for a different thrill on the balkans, but with the catholic denomination. Still, they do have a bit more of a chance than the roman empire with the isolated orthodoxy. But as the code, that chance is null. The existence of the tag serves as a means of another alliance to be called upon, and providing 10% war-rep, ducats to the player, forfeiting the claims, and such. This time, the alliance-bingo of the code hits the genoa. Good, a rich one. But before the onslaught can begin, send the diplomats to the balkan tags. Playing the ottos does not mean immunity to the aggro-exp.

Yes, aggro-exp is dangerous, even for the ottos. But only at the beginning, when the entire neighbourhood begins to forge claims. Even wallachia. That is why, send the diplomats. Especially the silly tag cilli (another smooth one, filcat. You must be a comedian. Do you do birthdays?), which can out of nowhere initiate a coalition, that results in a war with the best naming convention of the game. Punitive wars, which can be deadly for the run, might prove detrimental for a clean otto run. One coalition, yes, manageable; two, sure, why not. The third one will break the nerves of the strongest. There is no need. Increase the opinions of all possible candidates, from cilli to bosnia, from papal states to newly independent naples. Yes, -50 aggro-exp, in addition to low diplo-rep, along with a weak military, but only for the calculation of the code, that will result in a coalition. Not when the candidates have positive opinion. Yes, that is why it is always advantageous to maintain high opinions with all neighbours, and their neighbours.

This leads to the first idea. Of course. There is no dispute. Diplo-set is the only choice. From scotland to ming, from brandenburg to mamluks, from sweden to mongolia. If the tag is not a coloniser, the first one is Diplo-set. Hearing some unsolicited advice, as considering Admin-set. For ottos.

The broadcast will continue after a brief break.

- leaves the workstation, begins to laugh.
Administrative ideas set for ottos. Laughter intensifies,
reaches to the limits of screaming,
then falling on the ground, without any foreseeable end to laughing. -
- A couple more of hours later -
​

Diplo-set, when the tech is reached. Power on. Ordering a couple more galleys, making the fleet 20, going over the limit. They are galleys, and cheap. Choosing the naval doctrine for galley combat ability, +15% more. It is the ottos, and the Mediterranean is a dangerous place. Venetians, genoese, not to mention mamluks. Of course, the day for the iberians will come, too. Get ready. Epirus; she will call genoa. Good, as said before. Quick war, occupy Arta and Cephalonia, then proceed to embark on the city of Genoa. The Crimean holdings were occupied by theodoro; the beyliks occupied the Aegean islands. The city of Genoa is on hills, the siege will take some time. It does not matter, as the general has a siege pip. It ends fast, as expected. Ducats, war reparations, give up claims. No need to take any provinces, especially not the islands of Scio and Lesbos. They will come handy for propagating institutions, if the relations are good enough. Yes, that is a concern, and besides, genoa is a merchant republic: She will increase the goods produced in the trade node, which is the main one for the player's benefit.

...and epirus? Farewell, neapolitan friends. Or welcome to the empire. Emperor mehmed, is still in charge. Formerly padishah. Yeah, the title depends on the expansions to the game, do not ask.

Institution, that reminds the need to check the date. Eyes fetch the right-upper corner. It is 1451, aaand... of course, it spawns in Venezia. Venice is busy with defending against the mamluks, for a trade dispute. This is good, as the code endures some damage by the frantic code again. Code versus code, the best scenario. But it takes a bit long. Code versus code, that is expected. It takes a bit more. The patience silo is exhausting its resource faster than advancing-tick of the pseudo-real time. Finally, it ends. Mamluks take ducats. Huh.

Diplomats return. Every neighbour is happy. Before considering the next target, the diet convenes, and the luck shines from the screen upon the eyes of the player. Take a province from the Albania area.

Ah, albania. Allied with a naples, that has recently been mauled by papal states, left without a fort, and a ferrara, two provinces, but a fort. And guaranteed by the venice-tag. This is the reason for choosing the rivals late, and not expanding maniacally. Five (5) vassals, and a couple more provinces, booom, the venice will no longer be eligible for a rivalry. But below average expansion by conquests, keeping the military less than 45k, and the rivalry is intact. The best possible scenario. Two relatively rich, one rich war-ally of the target, and ripe for humiliation. Skanderbeg, your time has come.

But it is venice. 1 galley was lost in the epirus war; now 19 galleys. They will not be enough against the beast of the Adriatic. Order for constructing more galleys. More. More. MORE. Move the troops. Check the advisors. Finally, Matthaios Melissinos, a commandant. Welcome to the council, give +5% discipline. No naval reformer, though; not ideal, but manageable. All is set.

Except the music. Searching the archives of the mind. The serenity of the luck, the cheap achievements, the quick accomplishments, they nurture the darkening, the mind rests for a while from the stress of the reality happening. Yes, let the dusk be greeted, let the twilight be torn by the shining of the day, while inviting the darkness inside. The eyes are locked. The brows are knitted.

Spoiler: Into the haven

[*]

​

[*] Haven, from the album of the same name, by Dark Tranquillity (2000)
Original lyrics include "Deeper now it seems long before", instead of "But (...)"; kept the latter version, whereas acknowledging that it can be due to a hearing misinterpretation of the lyrics.

Edit 16.01.2025: Corrected formatting, factual, grammatical, lexical mistakes. Corrected images.

 

[filcat]

The incessant urge to write, the passionate love for maps, the ever-impossible hope for a difference in the game design; none satisfies the hunger truly in the mind while the grey is becoming the dominant colour of the day. Morrow runs over the dark, and the screen is loaded up.

On the other hand the imagination hits the reality, as the urge was never addressed fully. Graphics radiate with the ever remarkable art, that is the certainty. They never were the priority in the eyes, since the beginning of the time. The colourful, gleaming, polished, glaring, artistic expressions allow the joy for admiration, yet the experience overcomes the sweetened feelings, for it was never the reason for the need. Bits, textures, renders, overlays, all of them gave the delight, but the meticulous paintings or the fluid hand-drawings, they never hurt to look upon. That has been the fact, yet never was it put as the primary in the order for finding the answers to the inquiry. In fact, the graphics were supposedly improved at every iteration of every other game in the course of the advancing ages, even though it has been about forty years for software of fun. For this one, not even twenty years. But return to the overview of all software, and they plunged into the ever-lasting agony of three-dimensional fetish, becoming nastier, dirtier, duller, uglier. Opting for the clean or the colourful, yet preferring the simplistic over the purportedly more advanced looks. This choice confines the position into the ridiculous dichotomy of old-school against new-age. Detesting the meaningless discussion over it, the sentiment is certain on the love of joyful screens as opposed to the cold emptiness of three-dimensional, dead-inside, out-of-void attempts. If the art is targeting a comical background, then it is readily possible with vector or raster; if the freezing serious is the name of the objective, then it is forever-proven with innumerable examples of two-dimensional bits. None, on the contrary, has been the case for three-dimensional texture rendering. None.

Nevertheless the illustrious power of the visual arts; it has no connection to the urge to write. The writing has been the source of creation before even touching a pen, bringing it on a paper. It has been the most powerful aspect, and it has no connection to the urge, as it is the mind itself. It has been writing by itself, it has been alive by itself. The game only bolstered another aspect, but the need of passion was destroyed forever ago for that. If there is no aspiring love for the software, then there remains the obsessive hatred for it. This brings the reasoning to a dead-end, and further fronts have to be opened to battle with the questions.

It could have been easier when the mind has not been busy with the prolonged inputs, all of which are needless, yet most of it come from the game itself. A recursive function it becomes, cursing the process into a trap. What if the game is not played, then would the mind be freed to expand over other possible domains? No. There is a problem. The game is still played, before even hitting the play.

The eyes squint, the forehead wrinkles, the brows lower, the lips elevate. Are you playing the game, right now, even if the software is not started, yet? The decisions, the choices, the preferences, the actions, the operations, the processes, they are all running within the ever-infinite space of the mind. The imagination comes from it, as well as it powers the creative dreams. The game is running already, and the opening moves are made, the counter-acts are observed, the evasive-manoeuvres are devised, the plans are set in motion; and all are in the mind, yet the icon is still there, unclicked. Is this the case, that you are trying to realise those never-accomplished dreams? What dream can there be, with what target, with which aim? The objective is to enjoy the moment, that is certain, yet vague and unsatisfactory. The data to be processed only to bring another solution to a problem that is just created, that can be the answer, but the equations were never there, since the software itself is the source of them. The simple joy of achieving an accomplishment; can it be such simple, ordinary, banal, only then to write about it, as the writing does proceed simultaneously, since forever, and always?

You hit the play, and the questions go away. Even though they are still burning.

---

CHAPTER II​

Hello ottos. No, not missed you. Said multiple times, do not smile. It is not a return. The ottos are sad.


It is time to chill, as the reconquest of albania-tag is over, and the venice-tag is out. Seize estate lands to increase the crownlands. It is funny, that this feature was devised, but only at the end-phase of the design. It is more than funny; ridiculous. Remembering the before-ages, distributing each province at a time, to a different estate. Then there were the core-states and territories without full cores. If the state is shared with the estate, then what is territory, was the question. All such questions thundered the anger in the past, as they made you realise, that this was not a simulation, but an arcade-game. All that potential, the hope, the dream, the serene aspiration, the happy future, the wish for possibilities ever-near to the limits, endless they seemed. They hit the reality of making money with a violent sound. Arcades make money, not simulations. You are not the target customer, you do know it.

Habsburgs entered the run by their luck, as always, otherwise it would be even faster to reach the saturation level. That will be explained, but later. But now, austria-tag is well, alive, enjoying its personal union over hungary-tag, without even a flinch of an action, but by an event. Not complaining, as it is good for the player, and as the otto-player, there is no excuse to complain. If it was a venice-forever-run, then it would be rage with lightning strikes.

Of course, austria begins her moves, against the venice-tag. She is not busy, as the burgundian-charles-the-bold-wants-to-fight-lunacy-roulette hits the france-tag, instead of a war for Liege province against the empire. They will eat each other out, and as the otto-player, none of it is important. None. Not even at this point of the run, when the date shows 1460, and the ottos have not even succeeded in embracing the Renaissance. But yes, it is still king mehmed. Or no, it has been emperor, since the war for the city. That turbo-ruler gains another trait: Scholar. The result is, clear, not even crystal, but air. The standard mixture, not the actual material currently available over the planet, as it is highly contaminated. Move on from the analogy, tech-cost reduction by being scholar, and then there is the legalism of the muslim faith, and emperor mehmed being a turbo-ruler, add to the dhimmi estate, gives the player the ultimate advantage, by reaching the technology levels earlier than the rivals, the neighbours, the world. Even without the institution. That is why playing the ottos is the chilling process, as opposed to madness-driven lübeck-tag. Danish pretenders entered through our borders! Stackwipe. No, lübeck, you stay there, cannot deal with your mess, not while in this mood.

But the ottos do not come with all the honey and the beer to enjoy. There is the case of succession. Granted, it is inherently simpler than all tags, and has no pu-madness as the christian tags. The horde-tags have a bit of a problem, but all are bound to the nonsensical ruler-heir design of the game. For the ottos, well they are the one of the two tags in the game, with the unique mechanics. Ottos can choose among three candidates when declaring an heir, whereas everyone else is doomed with pseudo-random number generator shocks. No danger regarding personal unions, and able to see the attributes of the possible heir before the succession, is the clear advantage of the ottos. The other tag is, of course, mamluks. They can choose too, but without knowing the statistics prior to the decision. It is still an advantage. Sort of. Maybe. Whatever.

Yet this is not an actual advantage. The heirs are still produced with the pseudo-random number generators. Of course, they do tend to have higher numbers for their skills, based on observations supported by confirmation bias. Nevertheless, with the emperor expansion, there has been an interesting surge in the occurrence of a peculiar event. Kilic alayi; the kılıç alayı, fun words. First one has the singular meaning of sword; the second is a word with multiple meanings, ranging from mockery, to a batch, to a regiment, to a parade. The last meaning, a parade, is the one that is applied in this combination. This was a ceremony for the enthronement, when choosing the one to hold the sword of osman, the dynasty founder. Thus, the event is encoded and given context as such. In the game, whenever an otto-ruler dies without an heir, a ruler of the same dynasty from sons of osman assumes the control. Needless to say, the bias of the confirmation leans on the claim, that these surprise-rulers after such a succession are usually abysmal. And it still does not matter, as such disadvantage is only a dent on a wall of advantages with near-infinite dimensions. It is the ottos. Otherwise the saturation level of the game would be reached even faster.

The date advances, the ottos are chilling, drilling, accumulating ducats. The shadow kingdom happens, and then there is a pop-up message of a tag preparing to attack another. SHT! You forgot to disable the message setting for getting such a pop-up. Quick, go into the message settings, type attack in the search, filter by others, and disable the ones that are broadcast to the world, when a ruler exposes the plan. Otherwise from norway to butua, from ryukyu to aztecs, the game will bombard you whenever a tag has a buffoon ruler, and plans to attack another tag. Message settings. These are not only good to have, but mandatory for such games, which are projecting every sort of information package towards the player. Without them, the player is punished by the incomprehensible design choices, and whatever they bring upon as a message, as a toast, as a pop-up, as an information, and by default most of them are irrelevant. Kids, do not design a game without message settings, which allow the player to choose what type of message to receive as a pop-up, a log entry, a side note, or not. Ah, ck3. You can raid counties. Thank you, never asked.

Remember that humiliation of venice-tag? It gave additional 30 power projection, but it is also an accomplishment for the accumulating splendour in the Age of Discovery. Now falls the icon for age ability to choose, as enough splendour has been accumulated, by 1460. Of course, the ottos have the unique choice of Guns of Urban. This gives +33% siege ability, effectively turning the simple spear-bow-sword armies into bombard-cannons.

But, no.

Yes, there is no need. It is the ottos. The ottos do not need even the otto-ability. Instead, choose the Justified Wars, giving aggro-exp reduction of -10%. Why? What is the point of faster sieges of forts, when the war ends in the complete victory, but taking one province would incur a coalition started by ulm, joined by the entire Europa, including mamluks and qara qoyunlu? That is the reason.

The date advances a bit more, and the ottos are swimming, playing tennis, discussing the existential problems within the context of linguistics, while going through a rigorous experiment on windmill blades under storming weather conditions. Meanwhile your diplomat returns, telling that the claim on the island of rhodes is ready. You look at the polished document, and stop the aerodynamic-tests. Do not miss any opportunity on a recently left alone knights-of-the-rhodes. They usually go with the venice-tag, otherwise frequently allied with the france-tag. But the venice-tag had already been mauled by the code-mamluks, had been bruised by the player-ottos, and now being dead-beaten by the code-habsburgs. The code-knights, out of desperation, are allied to the cyprus-tag. This is the perfect scenario. It is unnecessary to point out, but the knights have to be eliminated as early as possible while playing in the vicinity, either as the ottos, or as mamluks, or as karaman. Otherwise, they will raid the coasts forever, lowering the prosperity. That is not a glimmering, golden, cute icon on the province window, but a critical aspect providing numerous modifiers. High prosperity means lower dev-cost, higher income, and increased propagation of institutions. It will passively increase over time, but with very low increments. Else, there have to be forts covering entire coasts to prevent 100% devastation on the provinces.

The ottos return from swimming, leaving the rackets, saying goodbyes to friends in discussion. One stack is enough, while the other is resuming its recreational activities. Drilling. Move the transports. Declare war on the knights. Blockade the ports of cyprus. Embark. Wait for the siege. Done. Check aggro-exp. Only venice and… no one else. That is why you improved the opinion with everyone else. And that is why you chose diplomatic ideas, because you need additional diplomats. Full-annex. Also, send one diplomat to shirvan-tag, your only ally, now down to two provinces. Ally, because still not able to vassalise.

Shirvan-tag is critical, as it is the only one left with the jafari school; +10% shock damage will be valuable, but only when having less than -50 mysticism; so, investment for the future. The other one is the mazandaran-tag, and it is nigh-on-impossible to vassalise that one. The reasons are there, when the cursor is hovered over the cross. It is far away, sure, but more importantly, it has the economic base. This is the most obscure one to comprehend, as you had needed to check the pages on the net for an explanation, you remember. Basically, when the target has high development in terms of tax and production, the vassalisation cost will be propelled with soyuz into space. The distance, the currently recruited army size, the diplo-rep, etc. can be overcome in time and with sufficient expansion. Not the economic base. That requires an enormous difference to cover. But shirvan-tag? That is not quite possible at the beginning, yet now it is down to two provinces as aforementioned. It should be possible, but no.

“Greetings from mehmed of the ottos. Now padishah. Err… emperor.”
“Which one is it exactly?”
“Eh don’t go into that subject, it can take days. Anyway. Would you mind if I ask you to join the lot? As a vassal. Come to the ottos. Adventures beyond dreams. Sunny beaches, snowing mountains, silent plains, delightful orchards. An experience never to forget. Visit the ottos.”
“Yeah, I do mind. You are too far away.”
“Visit the ottos. Enjoy the food, and- wait -what?”
“Yeah mate, there are aq and qara qoyunlu between us. Not to mention georgia and karabakh, don’t forget those.”
“…but we have 46k army and…”
“Naah. We are good.”
“Da faq?”
“Anything else?”
“… I’ll be back.”


The war of austria-tag ends, with a surprising pace. This is good, as the code shows a small bit of promise. Very small. In any regards, venice-tag is defeated with heavy punches, which means… it can no longer be considered as a rival for the player-ottos. The venice-tag is out. New rival to choose. Check the poland-tag. Good, they chose to form the union with the lithuania-tag. Do not get surprised, as the code occasionally opts for not forming the union, bringing its inevitable doom onto itself quicker than ever. This time, it chose to form it fortunately, and that is a good sign for the current scenario. But… wait. They are allied to – austria-tag? Your lips stretch, bringing the joy of smile to the day. This is really good, as it means the code is alive, functioning, calculating, as it has truly realised the player is the ottos, therefore employing all its skills to prevent its unavoidable destruction. None will matter, of course, as it is already said since the beginning. It is the ottos. No tag, no coalition, no trade league, no alliance ring can oppose the player-ottos. It can only provide an interesting challenge, and that is all.

This is also good news for the player, as there will be rivals for a longer time in the run. What is the reason for obsessing with the power projection, you hear the voice of the question. Your eyes open, a little wider than before, but not in a shocking gesture, rather, in an inquisitive manner. It is interesting to see such disregard for the mechanics of the game, and they are not that much in numbers, and they are not even that remarkable in quality. Power projection, which is the by-product of the rivalry mechanic, since it was conceived, is one overlooked aspect of the game. Usually assumed as the +1 monarch point generator when over 50. This is a gross simplification. It is true that the monarch points are the essential resources of the game, and they are entirely dependent on the monarch’s skills. Except for the tributaries, so ming-tag is always the most powerful at the end of any discussion. Regardless, the sources are scarce to none for monarch points, yes, but power projection does not mean only that. It is, actually, the ultimate number.

It is the ultimate indicator, for the game to run on its course. It not only provides prestige and fort defence bonuses, along with morale boost; power projection means there is rivalry. Rivalry stands in parallel. The target tag can be vassalised, but the necessary +190 opinion cannot be achieved? Check whether the target has a rival. Target cannot be allied when seeking protection while playing a relatively weak tag? Check whether the target has a rival. Then send a grave insult to the rival of that target. Insults are not fun-texts for the amusement of the human player. They provide opinion boost to the rivals of their addressee. Useful for vassalisation targets which do not allow royal marriages. Even this is not the actual reason for claiming the importance of the power projection and rivalry. Without a rival, the game will die.

Yes. The game will die when there are no rivals. It is a code, running calculations for its decisions. And the code is not an artificial intelligence, as it cannot save information, analyse and process it to achieve a new information, for a different decision. It will simply not care about the player, when the player surpasses every other tag. When there are no rivals, the code will be invalidated to make any move against the player. Even if it has delirious desire for the lands of the player, it will never take a direct offensive action against the player. In any case, when the player has four (4) vassals, the code will go silent; with more vassals, it will just shut down. The alliances do not count for the calculation of the might, as the code has other aspects to bypass that. Bold leader, hard-coded events, and such, therefore the england-tag declaring war on france-tag by doing nothing, or the burgundy-tag berserking for the province Liege, or the Danzig misery of poland-tag. The code will not dare to attack a player with five (5) vassals when saved from the chains of hard-coded events; and when the player has no rivals left, it will never even bother to function. It is therefore the power projection is that much important, meaning there has to be rivals for the run to proceed its calculations. In the end, playing the ottos means this: While being the most powerful, limiting own potential to keep rivalries intact. One more province, one more technology, one more additional force limit, one more institution embraced, and there will be no eligible rivals, and the game will die.

So, the poland-tag allying the austria-tag; this is good. Good. Very good. They will die, together, miserably.

Finally, the heir event prompts, giving three pathetic options to choose from. The numbers do not look good, and the only possibility is a 9-monarch, equally distributed. Let this heir be called, selim. How creative. Move on.

Still advancing in technology, faster than any neighbours, and their neighbours, gaining innovativeness, and the Renaissance has not been embraced yet. Even more advantages, as the innovativeness will reduce every cost requiring a monarch point. Move some of the castles for better positions; destroy the ones on the islands, and the one in Selanik. Seize estate lands.


A herald arrives. From england-tag.

England-tag makes an alliance with the denmark-tag, good, splendid. They will drown, together, wretchedly.

Uh-oh. It is still 1465, but haji of the house giray, the ruler of the crimea-tag, is old. This means there is a high chance of crimea-tag will get the event, thus making it a march for the ottos, or giving the ottos a subjugate-cb. And the player is the ottos. This is bad. Out of all advantages bestowed upon the ottos, this one is the most unfair. Unfair for the code, unfair for the player when not playing the ottos, and redundant for the player-ottos. Yet, it is still not the ultimate unfairness, when considering all the pu’s, the events, the claims of any other turbo-tag; castile-aragon, england-france, austria-hungary-bohemia-poland, and numerous others. Meanwhile, mzab dies within the first months of any run. Naturally. Ulm survives, though.


Event pops-up. Convert Hagia Sophia, or not. Opt to leave the place alone; it costs 20 towards mysticism. Still not understanding this mysticism and legalism, but whatever. At least the event gives loyalty to the dhimmi estate when opting for leaving the church as it is.

Military points fill up the limit; hire generals, increasing the professionality of the army, instead of pouring them into development; that is unnecessary while waiting for institution. It is the ottos, so in Europa; there is rarely a need for force-adopting an institution in or around Europa. Do not overlook the army professionality. Suppose hiring two (2) mercenary companies, and it will be drained in no time, causing the sieges to last forever.

Diet convenes, and the luck radiates as a brand new plutonium out of the ground. Incorrect analogy, as the plutonium becomes dull when oxidised. Though, the luck in the random mission is annexing the sons of ramazan, which will now cost without the -3 diplo-rep upon completion. It can very well be fantasised as a shining element, in this case. But the chilling time is over, as the barracks are full of fat and lazy janissaries. Time for a walk. Check the available targets. Of course, consider the mysticism-legalism issue. Still requiring additional legalism, as it is early to go for full mystic; and this means a heretic or heathen target. In the east, there is currently the aq, and no one else. In the west, there is wallachia, but the claims on her have not been achieved yet. Austria-hungary, her round is not up yet. Not that her polish alliance gives any concerns; as expected, poland-lithuania-tag has already exhausted all of its manpower over teutonics and for danzig. Eyes closed, shaking head, the code will never learn how not to waste every manpower over two-provinces, thoughts linger. Then which target remains?

Oh.

Of course.

Hello, serbia.

You will correct that mistake, forgetting about the serbia-tag. It is one of the crazy-fun tags to play with, especially remembering those moments of screams-inside over the keyboard to the screen, when the france-tag takes defender of faith and proclaims to protect every catholic tag in the Balkans, while playing serbia. But those are just memories, and now the player is the ottos, and there is no hope for the serbia-tag.


The music is ready, then.

Spoiler: No hope.

[*]​

[*] Emergence, of the album with the same name, by Shylmagoghnar (2014)
Minor appropriation on lyrics, for only one word.

Edit 13.05.2025: Corrected format, factual, typographical, lexical, semantic mistakes.

 

[filcat]

The rotation continues, and the ones on the surface do not notice its effects, therefore falling into the false ideas, such as assuming it being a steady object. In fact, their entire existence depends on that rotation. It is a direct result of material collapsing under gravity, producing other forces; and force being just as the friction, overlooked in any moment of the life coming out of organic materials which developed a mind capable of thinking, and being wrong. The example of friction, is a curious one, as it is the force that allows those beings to stand still and walk. Without it, there would not be an evolution to lead into vertebrates. Not even that, there would not be intersecting bodies, impact effects, and even if it is a side-effect in the form of waste, yet still needed in few or some or many cases of the universe, there would not be heat. But the heat is another form, in terms of energy it is classified, and that does have another level of story. The rotation, though, it comes with its own by-products and after-effects and equations. And yes, it does have quite the dance of love with the gravitational field of the universe, bending the reality for the understanding of those beings. Yet the beings are so small, the field remains almost a faint thought, then the force vectors and the body motions and the friction and the acceleration and the coriolis and even the magnus effect come to aid in order to fulfil the needed satisfaction in the answers to many questions. The summary of those questions is, simple: How. And it is the ultimate one. The only possible resolution for preventing the mind from falling forever.

The result is, nevertheless, explained in the colloquial terms. The sun rises.

Such simplicity gives away the drop of tear. Beautiful, as it is real. Even if it was not, then it would still be charming, as a form of performance, just as Brad Dourif, playing the role of Grima, dropping one, single, full, sole tear from his eye, upon seeing thousands of Uruk-Hais and Orcs and Half-orcs and Wild Men, saluting Saruman, played by Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee.

But colloquial terms lead the mind away from the how, and land it into the desolate wastes of the why. The question is glaring dormant as before, since the screen is looking back at the being. As the motivation is in the target range of questioning, the existence of that type of question is not questioned. Of course this line had to be written, for the answers escape, then the question itself has to be questioned. The integrity of it resists the inquisitive rays emitted from the eyes, so the answers have to be provided. The fronts previously opened have been defeated or averted one by one, and new horizons await for different battles.

Perhaps the obvious banality may provide another aspect of discussion, even if by itself it cannot end in any kind of fruitful argumentation. Yes, the history.


What if, the reason for clicking the icon twice, rapidly, ordering the program to boot up, and get ready, just to dissolve in the madness of the software itself; what if the reason is the history?

Now the new front is opened, the sitting position changes to show the frustration. No, it can never be that. The history and the software have nothing in common with each other. This is also an inflammatory topic to discuss, as it seems that the game is seen as a gateway to know about history, to learn the history, to exercise the history, as if – as if it is a simulation. No, it is not a simulation.

Even if it was a simulation, that would nonetheless mean nothing, in terms of learning history. The nanosecond of calculation by the processor as soon as the run is unpaused, then it is not a simulation, it can never imitate the history, it can never mimic the life completely. Multiple reasons, many explanations, heated discussions are wasted on this, yet it seems it is an alluring notion to call the game a history simulator. No, negative, never. Unpause, and the parameters are forwarded into the matrices as coefficients, and the expected output is formed, and the solution is calculated, and the moves of the code are brought forward against the player. There are only numbers, within equations, within loops, within conditionals, within functions, within recursive batches, and that is it.

Moreover, to conflate with the idea of re-entering and going through history by means of such a game is a defective argument, since it depends on the parameters used to simulate the point of the history. Then the history, but of the simulation, takes its course into its own routines, forever leaving the realm of reality. Now the argument of realism can be embarked upon the discussion, instead of reality. That will question the legitimacy of the code, the quality of the simulation, the plausibility of the play.

Yes, the play. That is a word, again overlooked, and often scolded. The child’s play. The simple play. The futile play. Then all using such claims will go and watch a film. Or a theatre play. The age of theatre is slowly fading, yet it is still there, so why not. The point is the impatience of the disputant, disregarding the importance of play in the life; while aspiring to live with it, but only for entertainment. On the contrary, the play, is, important. The act, is, important. The art, is, important, that it cannot be taken out of life for any reason, of which mostly deemed as too snobbish, too detached, too... artistic? No.

And the average of the points mentioned in the lunacy of the previous paragraphs is that the play is there, always. Even if a life is left devoid of the art of film, theatre play, radio play, book, painting, sculpture, architecture, perfume, dish, and music, and numerous others you fail to provide in this list, the play will resume in the mind. Do not worry, but they are called dreams.

The brain is the organ that keeps the life, keeping other organs in line, and then providing the mind to the one, but in the case of the nights, it is mandatory to sleep, for the functions of restructuring, reorganising, reconsidering the records of the day. The evolution since the hunter-gatherer days of the humankind gives the explanation for the nights to sleep, yet the dreams are still there as interesting research subjects. Still, a simplistic attempt on explaining the dream can be provided, as they are the plays of the individual, the fantasies of the functioning brain, the acts of the sane mind, for any reason, to remaster the knowledge learnt during the day, or even to cope with the pains of the traumas endured during the day. But it is, the dream, the name of the play.

Thus comes the aspect of game, in the form of exercising it as the entertainment. Judging by the words, and the mainframe of the topic, it is easy to tie the subject into the vast and wide and open space of Role Playing Games. Yes, with the rise of computerised calculations, the age of digital games overcome any other forms, replacing the toys of the day. As theatre still stands strong against the brute force of the film, the toys will resist against the games of the computers. Yet the computers have become available even more in the infinitesimal advances of the time, and they are masterful options against such physical beings as toys. Then there is the silent giant, sleeping for hundreds of years, that is called the Role Playing Games, but on tabletop. Here is the point to succumb into the madness of the old-school teaching the new-age: Back in the day, tabletop, pen, pencil, hand-drawn maps, hand-written attributes, these were not called Role Playing Games. They were, when there were only two editions, and a close contender, yes, they were called Fantasy Role Playing.


Fantasy, as the game creators, the dungeon masters, the game players knew it was never a futile attempt to relive, nor to follow the steps of a misinformed history. They were fantasies, regardless of their setting. Be it fighting against dragons in Forgotten Realms, else charging into teutonic knights as the boyars on Lake Chudskoe - Peipsi, it was always a fantasy.

Role Playing, as it was never the game itself, but the role to play, to act in scene, to perform the art as given in the plot, either mostly improvised, yet sometimes even scripted, yet all depended on a system of functions, controlled by the players through the numbers of their attributes, and of course, luck. Dice are there for a reason.

The rise of digital processors crushed the tabletop, and the latter could only stand and have started to fight back recently. Regardless, the name devolved into Role Playing Games, and the entertainment element dominated the activity. Thus comes the question, as opposed to the question: As it cannot be a simulation, can this urge to play this game, despite all the hatred for it; can this be explained by the game aspect of the program?

The first reaction becomes a diversion to gain some time against the counter-strike of the opposing question. Interesting, is the fast reply, yet the situation is quickly recuperated into a dismissal. How? How can it be regarded as a game? And what type of game? A strategy? Really? Do you think it can really pretend to be a worthy opposition to a game, no, not a game, but a discipline, a school, even a sport; can it be a contender for Chess? Or beyond that, can this game be considered as a strategy, when the one with near-infinite possibilities, the one with moves to be learnt maybe in an entire life-span of human-being, the one with strategic elements of not a game but almost a battlefield, is considered as a comparison; can it be a comparative strategy game against Go?


The reply does not even arrive, as it was already there, in your mind, screaming furiously: No.

Then you click on the icon, starting the game, quickly loading the last save file.

---

CHAPTER III​

Hello ottos.

The war for the serbia-tag made the impact. Therefore send those diplomats to everywhere, improve the relations, and even start to distribute all the ducats you have as Great Power Influence. Good for the influencer, gaining quick 25 opinion, but the recipient is benefiting more; they earn 1 monarch point they are lacking every month. This is actually another lucky moment for a player that is a weaker-than-turbo-league tag. Main examples have been observed while playing the holland-tag, and gaining the influence from as well as the guarantee of the france-tag. But, the player is the ottos, so that will never happen, nor they will ever need that. Turbo-tags always influence.

The army is sent to the barracks for more recreational time, and the heralds arrive. Mamluks attack qara qoyunlu. This is good, very good. If the mamluks win, then they will be more powerful, so the rivalry can be retained. Moreover they will conquer the provinces of Iraq region, and so they will be open for the player-ottos to make a move. The plan is simple; as the early dates require the otto-player to accumulate legalism by attacking heathen or heretic targets, the problem of high cost for technology can be mitigated. In time, this need will diminish, therefore there will be no need for staying on the legalist side of the slider for the muslim mechanics of the game. Then comes the time for mystic side; low on the mysticism will grant bonus for fort defence and missionary conversion strength. Both are not important at all, but only nice to have. In the Age of Reformation, the tags that convert at least 10 provinces will gain more splendour, so conversion is still in the plans for the otto-players, albeit of trivial-to-no importance. Yet, there is one other bonus with low mystic side, that is, army morale. Yes, that is required, in an ever critical fashion.

No tag on the map can confidently deal with the armies of turbo-tags such as france- or castile-spain. They will shred through all hopes of the player, as they also have the luck factor.

Yes, luck factor. The code cannot deal with the human player; are there any more ways left to discuss this any more? Anyway, as it cannot handle the reality, therefore certain tags are given luck factors, classified as lucky nations in the game. These are various, but most importantly, they have increased siege ability, lower impact on aggressive expansion, and greater manpower recovery speed. None of them can salvage the code from its misery, in any case, but they will certainly cause much trouble on the patience of the human player. Added to this, for example france- or castile-spain tags, they have enormous morale bonus by their ideas, making their army particularly dangerous. Therefore the player needs every bit of extra help that can be found from anywhere; the pseudo-random events cannot be trusted in this regard.


Moving on, chilling out. It appears that the heir is an embezzler, meaning additional yearly corruption. Fine, whatever, bring on, code; bring on every frustrating card you have in your deck. Yes, the code cannot make an efficient strategy, not one bit at all, this is not a strategy game, nor a simulation, but it does throw you stones and rocks and mud and iceballs, and sometimes, giant boulders, as events. This is nothing. Fun memories fill the mind, such as getting consecutive negative events for diplomatic reputation, each giving -1, thus being left in the middle of Europa without an ally. When the diplo-rep hits about -3 and lower, then it is certain that every tag will abandon you, along with hyper-increase in liberty desire of subjects, etc. Yeah, embezzler, that is nothing. Nothing.

Not interesting, as genoa has been beaten left and right, and it cannot hold onto her holdings; now it seems that the island of Lesbos produced a separatist movement. It is safe to assume that the genoa-tag cannot fight back with the rebels, thus with high probability they will gain their independence. Of course, ottos have a claim on the island. Not that it is needed, but put it on the list.


Hang on. Hang on a second.

“Hmmm. Aragon-tag declares some rivalries with some other tags.”
“It what mate? Are you sure?”
“Of course, I know how to read. Here is the paper; second page of Heralds of the Sidebox.”
“Aragon declared Naples as her rival. What da faaa-“
“I thought subjects cannot declare rivals. Huh. Wait. No.”
“Uh-huh. It appears to be.”
“No. No. No.”
“…”

Spoiler: 'No, no, no -'

Aragon-tag declares some rivalries. This is grave news indeed, yes, it means castile-tag is alone. The code has managed to lose the union after they formed it some years ago. Great. Splendid. Awesome. FAQ.

And faq it is, as it means the castile-tag is out. Yes, out, as it is the code. Despite having luck factor, despite its geographic position, and despite being the absolute luckiest tag in the game, the code finds a way to die out even before the first age ends. It is only 1468, and one of the potential rivalry is down for the otto-player. There will be blood between the iberian tags, further weakening their positions against the player-ottos. The game starts to give death-signals. This is bad. The only hope is the france-tag going berserk on castile-tag, and maybe it will become a worthy opponent, so that it can be chosen as a rival by the player, thus the code will function a bit longer. Otherwise, the drums of the doom are already heard. Afar, but there they are.


Frustrating, aggravating, angering. Move on. You go ahead, and sort out some choices on economics; enough ducats are accumulated, so churches and workshops shall be built. Or temples. Or wait, yeah, mosques. Sure, why not. Never knew places of worship would be considered as gold-producing tax-departments; it is an oblique relation the game design presents, but at this point, not complaining, as the news already drained the patience silos. Running on reserves of patience. Five (5), each of the buildings. Yes, generic missions, build buildings, gain 50 admin, and some yearly tax for a certain time. Unfaqingbelievable – still in the shock for castile-tag being out, and that is not a rare occurrence, remembering such scenarios from years ago. Faq. Then who else to rival? Hopefully muscovy-tag survives in this run.


Faq. Haji of the house giray dies. Crimea-tag comes as a march, right away. Splendid, as if it was needed. The player-ottos are getting more powerful with ever the increasing speed. The rivalries will fall, before even any conflict at all. Faq.

Renaissance is spread through the city and Edirne; all right, embrace it. The Renaissance is the only one to embrace without the need to check the current technology research status. Technology research status, yeah, right. These are heavy words to use on a mechanic that passively creeps through time, and depends only on the pseudo-random ruler the game gives. Whatever, the institutions will cost too much, especially for the player, with any tag. Generally the player goes for a conquest-spree, becoming large in no-time. Even when staying small and tall, the embracing cost will be always disadvantageous for the player, as the code has always the luck factor for those certain tags; the rest embrace it earlier than the player, as they usually remain small, and by being the code. But for Renaissance, it is critical, especially if the player controls the city: Konstantiniyye, Constantinopole, or Istanbul, whatever its name is, it is the city in the game, and plausible for the history that the game takes place in. It is given a crystal-glass type for the main product. When the Renaissance is embraced, a specific event prompts, and the city is the main candidate for that to trigger: Diamond District. This turns the main product into Gems, adds bonus for trade efficiency and goods produced. This is critical for the player with any tag in the region of Balkans and Anatolia, so that the trade node can get richer. It is a small percentage, but significant addition for that plan. The player should act fast, otherwise siena- or flanders-tags will get it before.


Move on. Chill out, as if you can, after those news. Anyway. More heralds. Danzig emerges. Eh, the poland-tag will drain even more manpower. This is getting worse, and frustratingly, the code-teutonic-knights are never able to prevent this insurrection.

Send diplomat to Shirvan, share the institution. Maybe it will spread faster to the rest of the world, and more rivals can arise. Maybe. Splendour points full; now the Guns of Urban can be chosen. It is 1470, but the code-ottos generally chooses the unique ability first; that is why a player with any other tag going against the ottos should initiate their offensive operations prior to 1460s. Otherwise, the code-ottos will shred everyone, despite the skill-deficiency and the bugs it has. For the player-ottos, well, it was mentioned before; the code has no hope.

Renassaince is embraced, some buildings are constructed, but still have more ducats than 500. This means, order constructing a flagship. Yes, flagship, and it is not a galley, nor a heavy. It is a light-ship, so for trade. And build it with Trade Route Map, Command Aftercastle, and… Flag Officers. First two are obvious, as extra trade per light ship, and extra navy morale, for the navy morale is everything in naval combat. Or 90%. Or 80%. The mathematics is not clear in this regard, but given by empirical data based on observations. The equation can be found from the according page on the net. So, apart from navy morale, the rest of the naval combat entirely relies on Admiral skill points. These numbers will not be pretty as long as the navy tradition stays pathetically low. Navy tradition, that subject will be covered later; but currently, there is not much chance to increase it in short time. So, the only chance is having at least not-terrible admirals. Not a dead-end, but Flag Officers are useful for this purpose: This will increase monthly chance of improving admiral points while on mission. Therefore, build the light-trade-ship, assign it to the trade-ships protecting the trade at the main-node, but with an admiral. The admiral will gain skill points with higher chances. But not with greater chances, so do not hold your breath. That is it.


Chill, relax, calm down, you are getting stressed out of no reason. Well, ok, when the code dies out so ludicrously, yes it is understandable to get angry. Move on. New technology, reaching level 7 with eight (8) years in advance. Hesitating, but clicking on the button to approve it. Cannons have arrived.

Mamluks are no longer eligible rivals for the ottos.

You close your eyes. How many times. How many times you have endured this… this… this design. You failed again. You failed to maintain the rivalry, and the game design is supposedly about overcoming rivals. Well, not with this design; it is more to maintain the rivalries. So, trying to save the code from itself while playing against the code and... Eh.

You laugh, but with a horrifying cynicism. You try to lower your voice, as your neighbours may get annoyed. You laugh, at the screen, at the game, at the ottos.

Another… Another herald arrives.

Austria-hungary tag is…

Bohemia-tag is…

You.

Are getting.

Angry.​

How many times you have to endure this design? How many times you watched the incapable code doing nothing but only annoying you? The code is only capable of moving its armies, from Toulouse, France, to Pyongyang, Korea. In 50k stacks. By foot. On land. Over entire Siberia. But it cannot keep any alliance, it cannot deal with its own aggressive expansion, it cannot end a war quick, it cannot maintain its manpower, it cannot make any strategically justifiable choice. Not one. Strategy, each time you hear it, you start to laugh angrily. And simulation? What is left there to simulate? Just two wars ago, you had to chase 17k stack of the venice-tag from Dalmatia, over Hungarian Plains, into Moldavia, then from Crimea, back to Balkans, into the heartlands of ottos, then back around Albania, you finally caught up with them, then they escaped back to Aegean Sea, landed on an island, and they got stuck there. That is it. This is the game.


You are getting angry. No, you were getting angry, and now the reserves for patience are empty. Warning signs are alarming, the alerts are screaming, the veins are bulging on your forehead; the angry is far away. You look at the map. You see them. Sons of candar, sons of karaman, wallachia.


You are full of rage. Yes, the music is already set.

Spoiler: Blind Rage

[*]
​

[*] Blinde Wut, of the album Weltenbrand, by Gernotshagen (2011). Link to unofficial audio.
Unofficial translation to english on the images. Original german lyrics include colloquial words.

Edit 03.07.2023: Corrected format, lexical, semantic, typographical, grammatical mistakes.

 

[filcat]

You do not know when the vivid colours of the sky have escaped into the sombre silence.

It must have been two times at the least, as the ever-surrounding light made the dance in the eyes. The rays carrying the photons over the wavelengths hit the eyes, they are transmitted through the receptor cells, and through the neurons they are processed, leading into knowledge. There would not be knowledge without the light, as there would not be material at all without it. The never-forgiving voids of the black holes still carry the questions behind the horizons imprisoning the event. Yet the rest is a great distance, and the pettiness of the percentage the material encompasses is still monstrous in proportion to the beings, who get curious, asking questions, seeking answers. The questions lead to many answers to be found; nevertheless many more arise from the ashes of the old ones, and much more are asked as the new ones are born out of themselves. Questions giving birth to questions, and that is the name of the process.

Disregarding the mechanics behind, over, aside, near the happening, the focus intensifies on the situation at the moment. The light has been replaced with the darkness, and the hopeful rays of the faraway reach for help elevating the spirits in the gloom of the night. Then come the clicks. Along with questions, again, always, forever.


What if the reading about history is enjoyed; so, then, what? Well, it is always there, that was not disputed. However, the resources for it are deemed to be more valuable when searched elsewhere, methodically, in a disciplined manner, and with a planning. Besides, it is not sufficient to see it as enjoyment, but beyond it, it is a curiosity, burning in low grade, but remaining next to the main interests. The sources to find the answers are numerous, yet it always starts with the one, and only, act, move, effort: Questioning. The readily available method is reading, naturally depends on the answers found for the questions others had asked. Even that has its own story of thousand pages, but the obvious reply is the library. The sanctuary of the mind, the hall of the silence, the treasury of the words, scrolls, pages, papers, proceedings, journals, compilations, books, encyclopaedias, tomes. That is only one method, and already lost the trail within its depths. The methods are more than that, non-intrusive leaves the place to intrusive types, hence the digging, finding the clues underneath the earth, buried cities, calcified streets, hidden potteries, piled coins, ruined, submerged, sunken. All archaic, maybe, then why not carbon dating. The disciplines collide, the geology says hi to her friends archaeology and numismatics, they hang out at the history bar.

However the passion may be shared by many, truly it becomes individual when the motivations are exposed. Yours is simplistic compared to the wide spectrum of those in that building; captivated with another aspect of the similar inquiries, yet never satisfied.

The examples differ wildly, and the experiments on water in a tube, under controlled vibration, causing loss of its steady nature, transitioning into turbulent motion, and identifying a certain number for it, so tested Osborne Reynolds in 1883. All in the journals, written stylishly, hand-drawn gorgeously, calculated meticulously. If no desire for the roaring silence between the walls of a library, then the net comes handy. Marie Salomea Skłodowska Curie exposed the knowledge within the polonium and radium elements; just as Marie Curie opened a new horizon of questions, Nikola Tesla provided the ingenious idea of alternating currents. That is how it is possible to look at a screen, read the lines, then click the mouse button twice, rapidly, and onto the screen the art of the software arrives.

The passion is there, although being a by-stander, you do acknowledge the aspect of history. But for the game, let alone a satisfactory one, this does not give any answer at all. This has been questioned already, and you do know the game cannot be used as means to meet the interest for history. The nature of the game does not allow it, and besides, as a principle, such a connection is also dismissed. The map certainly provides the gratification for the interest in geography, but more so, even the artistic expression of maps charms the mind, thus this is a default and null argument.


The clicks were a couple of years ago in the mind now, the screen is already there. Loading the file is all that is needed. Why it has to be history to discuss the nature behind the passion for such a game? What does this have any part in the question? Is it only because it does take place in ages before now? What date does it write? 1444, says the number. As aforementioned, using the terminology of the game that is glaring on the screen right now; it is just after a world-war-of-punishment, a punitive war against the sons of osman, then was the second of the name, murad, by a coalition gathered under the banner of hunyadi. It was not the last hope of the Balkans from the perspective of the ones residing in the north, yet it certainly broke the coalition in defeat; and for the riders of the south, it was every bit of a victory. The punitive war of the coalition, fought in Varna on 10 November 1444; in the terminology of the game again, that was also a truce-break war. But the story was even more complicated than that.

---

Hunyadi János was ever eager to defeat the sons of Osman, for him just another tribe riding from east, usurping the lands belonging to them. Those lands were never able to see peace, as the Roman Empire, the Venetians, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, all were fighting each other for those lands. The Oghuz tribes, landed by the Rûm, even after the Ilkhanate times, remained as another party in the fray. Hunyadi János made his decision, invading the south Balkans, after the sons of Osman established their dominance. In the terminology of the game, a truce-break. It was already 1444, and the sovereign was Mehmed, the child of Murad the Second. He was only 12 years old, and the azaps under Mehmed’s banner defeated the knights of Hunyadi János in September 1444. In his eyes, this would never end, until Hunyadi János would achieve victory against his enemies.

Murad the second, as silent as he was, left the throne for the first time to his child, Mehmed, in June 1444, only a couple of months before those initial battles. After those, Hunyadi János was convinced, and thus in the terminology of the game, another truce-break. He was joined by Venetians, supported by the Papal State, and a new crusader army was gathered in the name of Władysław the third of the Jagiełło, actually the king of Poland; but he was invited to rule the kingdom of Hungary, since the previous king, Albrecht the second of the Habsburgs had died. He had only one heir, but unborn, Ladislaus, the Posthumous.

With the ties of Albrecht the second of the Habsburgs, the army was joined by Bohemians and Burgundian ships. With Władysław the third of the Jagiełło and Hunyadi János, Hungarians, Croatians, Polish, Lithuanians, and Ruthenians. The Papal State called for Teutonic Knights, the Venetians provided the ships, and the kingdoms of Bosnia, Serbia, and Wallachia sent troops. The sons of Osman approached Varna, but Mehmed had already left the command of the army back to his father, Murad the second.

Then, on 10 November 1444, the armies clashed. Hunyadi János retreated, without the body of Władysław the third of the Jagiełło.

Murad the second, with the support of the nobles, returned to throne after the Battle of Varna. He fought against Skanderbeg of Albania, but he was defeated. In 1451, he fell ill, and died, leaving the throne for the second time to his child, Mehmed, then 19 years old.

Two years after his second enthronement, Mehmed gained the epithet, the Conqueror.

---

You wonder, but that takes only an ethereal portion of seconds. It could be a good strategy game, a very good simulation of fantasy with a historical setting, but it is not a strategy, nor it has any simulation side left in it; it is an arcade-game only. An interest in history cannot explain it; this does not serve as an answer to the question, why the icon is hit and the program is started, hastily, repeatedly, regularly. No tag in this design of game can oppose such a coalition at its beginning, nor at later dates; the code will fail, only the player can survive such a madness. If the code cannot handle itself, if it cannot provide such details but overrides all with enormous assumptions, if its survival depends on not unique decision capability but lump coefficients of advantages, then it is not a simulation.

The reason to play the game remains a mystery.

You click to load the save file.

---

CHAPTER IV​

Hello ottos.

The darkness of the rage has passed, the breathing remains calm, the usual level of blood-pressure is maintained. Your eyes are focused on the screen, yet they are lazily moving, as the eyelids are only half-open, showing that the joy has been already exhausted.

With a non-hope of waiting to see what will happen as the date advances, you check the court tab. The turbo-ruler of the otto-tag is about 42 years old now. The heir is 21, and that is a concern. As the game lacks any details upon the lives of any human beings to be simulated, the rulers and the heirs and the consorts do also share the same design. There is no way to estimate the time when they will pass away, certainly similar to the life itself, but in the game, it does absolutely depend on the pseudo-random number generator of the code. The monarchs can die at any time, but with increased probability at advanced ages.

This does not matter, as no concern can affect the ottos in the game, when the player is in charge. Check it, now both the ruler and the heir are given the embezzler trait by the code. This is the coping mechanism of the game; a deduction entirely based on empirical data with heavy confirmation bias, the game will pull every annoying trick instead of devising any interesting strategy. 18-monarchs, the phantom 6-6-6 rulers, will die in no-time; such heirs will die out by events of hunting accidents before the blink of eyes.

None matters for the otto-tag, yet the age difference between the ruler and the heir is a troublesome point to consider. When the sword of Damocles falls upon the ruler, the heir to ascend may very well be at an advanced age, more than the ideal. This will lower its chances to resume its computerised-lifespan. Consecutive death of nobility usually means a doom for the peoples living on the lands where those aristocrats roam; this is plausible. In the game terms, the sudden loss of stability, as well as unexpected succession of an heir without the opportunity of the player to act; that can be troublesome. But there are more events to consider. An event regarding the court-politics of the ottos prompts, giving options to either side with the mother of the ruler, or go with other choice. Choose the other; giving a new heir, but younger, and lower legitimacy. The new heir is a 12-monarch, 2-5-5; better than before. The eyes behind the half-opened lids roll. The default name is given selim again. How surprising. Accept, carry on.


Relax. Regular breathing is maintained, the armies are ordered to drill, and the decision of the State Firearm Regiments was already enacted. A small loss of income, for the ottos; 15% increase in army maintenance can affect smaller tags heavily; but for the ottos, no.

The date is showing 1475, thus reconsider the vassals. The sons of dulkadir, the kingdom of trebizond, the goths of theodoro, they served their purpose. Check other candidates. Circessia-tag is an excellent candidate, unfortunately it has -1000 as reason to never accept a vassalisation. When the crimea-tag was given by the code as a march, one province was ceded to the player as well: Matrega. It was a circessian core. Now the date to lose that core has to be waited; until 1494, the circessia-tag will say, go away, ottos. Still, proclaim guarantee, start to influence.

Bosnia-tag; annihilated by the austria-hungary aggression, survived by one province. Guarantee, influence, and increase opinion. They will be valuable for a possible reconquest-cb on the habsburgs. The austria-tag had lost the throne for empire, which means it can fall from being an eligible candidate for rivalry at any moment. So, no wars in foreseeable future. Yet, give military access, send gifts, ask for transferring trade power, do every diplomatic move on bosnia-tag, so the required +190 opinion can be achieved. Too much aggro-exp slows down the vassalisation process, so let she wait for a bit more while until persuaded.

Shirvan-tag is still too distant to vassalize; check oman-tag. That one is of hanbali school, so it will give -10% aggro-exp upon inviting scholars from those lands. Of course, they are landlocked, and extremely far away, far beyond shirvan; still, increase opinion, as already guaranteed its independence before. Investment for future.

Instead of morocco- and tunis-tags, check the ones in upper Nile, as a potential candidate for another vassal, to get one with maliki school; -10% dev-cost. This one is nice to have, but not mandatory at all. The ottos will require probably only once to invest in development, and with high probability for the Printing Press, in the next age. Only probably. Beja-tag seems good enough; down to one province, surrounded by powerful others. Guarantee, but not yet ally, nor marry royally.

Candidates are chosen, thus now one more generic mission leg can be activated: Annex vassals. Mass annexation of vassals will take time, if not properly managed. The mission leg gives -15% annexation cost, that is beneficial. The sons of dulkadir is the largest; the other two theodoro and trebizond are one-province-minors. Before starting the calculations, turn the hisn kayfa tag into a march. This was already said before, as that one is a turbo-chad-opm, perfect as a vassal. Send officers through vassal interaction, thus they will have +20% army morale, +5% discipline; standard recipe for tags such as france and castile-spain. The descendants of saladdin, the sons of ayyubi, hisn kayfa also have +10% morale and +5% discipline, in addition to lowered core creation, as national ideas for their tag. Turbo-chad, and they will not stay as opm for much longer as your march.

The calculations can begin. The sons of dulkadir cost 146 diplo-points to annex, by 6 diplo-points per month; trebizond 86, theodoro 59, each with 4 diplo-points per month. Check the technology; diplomatic research is about to lose its condition of being ahead of time, and the reserves show more than 700 points, and gaining 13 points per month; owing to the turbo-ruler, the (+3)-advisor Sebastiano Priuli with 50% cheaper salary, and research focus on diplomacy. Therefore, the day of annexing has come. Each annexation gives -3 diplo-rep, but not accumulated, yet each time for 10 years. If it is set properly, all three can be annexed on the same date, thus shorter period of low diplomatic reputation. This is not only good for diplomatic issues; low diplo-rep also extends the time required to annex, if done as a linear procedure. So set it properly to avoid longer than usual, if monthly loss of diplo-points is affordable.

If one diplomat is sent to the sons of dulkadir on 1 July 1478, and to trebizond on 1 October 1478, then theodoro can receive the annexation order on 1 May 1479. This will ensure annexing all three on the same day, by 1 September 1480. That is it. The calendar hits the result date, supported by the calculation of the code, and just as the sons of ramazan before, the vassal friends are no more. The ottos are left with two marches, crimea and hisn kayfa, along with two allies, three guarantees, all to be vassalised when they are willing to.

[*]​

Technology has advanced, thus prepare to choose the second idea group. There is no room for another discussion point, so save this for another time. As the annexation is complete, the eyes lock on the shirvan-tag. Between the ottos and them, there remains the aq qoyunlu-tag. The sons of bayandur are ruling over the eastern Anatolia; but the perma-claims of the ottos are not there yet, as those require the full-conquest of the sons of karaman in the mission leg. But aq-tag is allied to karaman-tag, along with the great horde. And of course, turbo-chad hisn kayfa has already perma-claims on Diyarbekir and Mardin.


Your lips move forward and above, as a form of showing respectful sadness. It always becomes such silent; after the previous wars of rage, then arrives the serene regret. The archives are considered, the music is found. A farewell to former vassals. Also, a farewell for the aq qoyunlu, along with the karaman.

Spoiler: Farewell

[**]
​

[*] Still-images from The Wire, Ep. 12, Cleaning-up, S.1. (a. Idris Elba, Lawrence Gilliard Jr, Michael Kostroff)
[**] Farewell, of the album Aeon, by Angel Nation (2017)
Link to a power metal channel; official audio published by the group is available only for five countries in europe.

Edit 05.06.2024: Fixed the broken link, unfortunately with a live performance instead of a clean recording; the other link above is still functional yet not available to the most of the world. Corrected factual, formatting, typographical mistakes. Added the missing reference. Corrected images.

 

[filcat]

Eyes. Curtains. Sun, and then there is light. Clothes. Bed. Water. Bathroom. Toilet. Clean-up. Shoes. Outside. Buy. Eat up. Clouds, not moving, covering every bit of the sight. Rotation, in lightning speed. The mind ticks over time, the hands dance for work, the mouths open and close with sounds, the words echo everywhere. Outside, door, inside. Shoes. Bathroom. Clean-up. Kitchen. Prepare, chop, mix, boil, cook. Eat up. The room. The screen. Keyboard, calm clicks. Hesitate for a moment. Cursor, move. Hovering over the icon.

Stop.

This is becoming an obsession. No, not the game, but while looking for the answers, the game runs in the mind in anyway. The question is still floating in the mind, without a noise, without a presence, without a smell, without a sight, and it is tasteless. The last one has to be different, otherwise the reading may turn into either a numbing experience, else it will irritate. The shock, however its strength being small or great, either obvious else subtle, has to be used when the words become stale.


It is not fruitful to continue on the history aspect of the game for an answer to why still playing it, as one example suffices. Yet, even that example and its implications are over there, ready to open more doors to the seas to dive into. It is unreasonable to expect a software to imitate the exact and down to the smallest detail of the life happened before. Yet such a consideration cannot be used as an excuse for a game countless times to reiterate a chubby plumber to run and jump and hang around two-dimensional platforms. Now three-dimensional, though. But the point is, the ideal maximum limit is not a vague notion to be dismissed. The resolution of the details depend on the passion of the game design, and this game is passionate down to its core. That is undisputable. Of course her cousin crusader kings; she makes this game blush in the shying moment of envy. She has all the potential to leap over this game, but that is another story.

The game’s icon looks at you, and you are about to click, once again. The horizon of the ideals, a complete rendering of the history, with all its game-mechanics, can be inspirational for a remarkable simulation. This is not the case of a simplistic frowning on this game, as she fails to reach that line where the eyesight cannot reach beyond. No, that is not expected. The hopes are within reasonable context.

And of course, the game deserves much credit, far more than any others for what she is: A game that brought more questions to be asked, opening new possibilities, bringing unbelievable permutations of thoughts. Even only the quantity of its programmed tags can be given as an example, and then she soars without any rivals, outside her own family. Granted, the game has a large family, living in other galaxies of stellaris, fighting through the imperialism during the times of victoria, and dying by the bullet for a heart of iron. Her family has a long history, dating back to the imperator, in game-timeline, as that one is only a child nowadays. But this game; she covers an age, that is more or less appealing to a larger base, thus it is easier to get attracted to.

Your reason was different when you first encountered it. You still remember how you bought and installed the game. It was eons ago by now, and the title had a different number in it. The second title made the heart blast with an extraordinary sound. Then came the hunt for the series; there were only two of them, so you found the original, the initial, the first, the one that did not need a number to define. Then… then… then what happened? The earth rotated around itself, and around the sun, and the system rotated, the galaxy rotated. Organisms evolved. Different, other, new experiences were gained. The game stood still, the passion was adamant, but the time allocation had to be rationed. The love continued to burn.

Thus came the latest, and only a chance was given to it. Understandably, it would not generate the similar excitement, that was expected. But why would it not? Why could it not bring an entirely different and more… what? If the name of the hope does not exist, it cannot be used as an excuse. Nevertheless, the disappointment had arrived, and there it stayed ever since.

Minor aspects piled up, little points gathered together, tiny portions of frustration added on top of each other. Why it has to be devoid of human life, whereas the game is still about human-beings, on the global scale? This is the problem of learning history, but of simplistic approach. Following the steps of ages, but by the rulers and the entities and the armies. On 10 November 1444, the kingdom of Hungary and the sons of Osman clashed. They were led by János and Murad. And? Did they fight by themselves? Who were those, that were brought there by their monarchs? Did they all join together, willingly? How did they dress up, what did they eat, where did they come from, whom did they love, to which tunes did they dance, what dreams did they have at nights, did they look at the stars, did they crawl up into beds, did they have beds, did they sleep well, did they have nightmares, did they talk about the fantasies they had? The example collapses under its own weight at the end of the breath held as the letters of the words on the lines are typed. Come back from the rabbit hole, to the previous clashing thoughts of your mind.

Why the technology research has to be so simplistic and rigid in the game? The trade was incredibly designed, yet it was static, flowing into one direction without any chance of changing it. Yes, the map was there, yes, the hope was there, yes, the thrill was there, albeit in the form of reserved doubt. And yes, the interest for history was there, but that was never a reason. Nor you ever wanted it to be.

In order to be a simulation, it has to be close to the limits of plausible realism, but not exactly real, otherwise it cannot be a simulation, by definition. The real was never expected, because that did already happen, and the universe continues to spin, regardless of what one wants from it. The universe, the galaxies, the systems, the suns, the planets, the moons, do not care about what the living organisms think of them, if they ever think at all. The subject becomes blurred, and this is not the place to discuss it further.

However, the game is not the reality, and thus naturally it could have been, it should have been a realistic simulation by its great potential with great possibility. This did not happen, that is why the sadness of the disappointment had arrived. It never needed to follow exactly what happened in the history, but it made great and admirable and remarkable effort with some of the events for its plausibility. Yes, that is it, one of the reasons, but of sombre sighs, not for the joyful thrills. Those events remain, always for small group of tags, and they are given as advantages, and they are not available for the most. By 1445, france-tag is attacked by england-tag as an event, following the events of what the records show. The game had undergone significant design-changes, yes, but stay with the current expansion for simplicity. In the game, it is an opportunity, but for those two tags, and perhaps for their neighbours, and definitely the player benefits more, but the code needs it more than the player. Return to the point; butua or malwa-tags do not need to hear about it, nor would they care. But they do not receive such similar events, so no advantages, yet the others that do receive are always the same. The allegedly popular ones. In time, many of the tags have received more events in design, and the game improved over herself. That was still hopeful, yet the patience was already gone forever. There had been, were, and are more problems; inherent to the design.

There is the technology difference, forced due to the institutions of ages. A dying Europa still spawns Printing Press, and every other tag is still doomed to lack it; arguably acceptable, to a certain extent; all right. The technology is not researched at all, instead passively accumulated and reached and achieved; another setback in possible joy; then what does there remain to enjoy after these heavy blows? No, none but the ones to frown upon. The inherent and incomprehensible difference between the tags. This was and still is the most glaring example in the eye, receiving the lightning of agony in the mind. Why do the units of ethiopia-tag have less fighting capability than a castile-tag? A player with ethiopia-tag can easily overcome all other tags, yet still get stuck with mystifying difference for her units in comparison to others, to her disadvantage. This is not even the best example, as ethiopia-tag can be considered still as a powerful one. As sari-yogir, or pawnee, or kongo, the player can bring doom upon the code, and yet they will have statistically lower fighting capability than the group, named as western technology.

But this was a cheap shot, you do know it. This design is primarily for the code to follow it, not for the player. The intended design can be regarded as to overcome the code with less advantages than those given to the code. This is an acceptable point, but the questions line up behind the counter-attack. The trade flow, always ending in one certain node - disregard the other two end-nodes; that certain node becomes the power house of the map, even if an actual greatpower is somewhere else on the globe. Usually the player. Why is this direction set by default, as if mountains born out of an evolution of geological mechanisms of the plaques on earth? Even that is not a static, already mentioned, the continents move. What is the reason –


Then you get tired. These questions, and many more, were asked and debated and discussed, only to reach inconclusive points, but the only result at the end of day has been, was, and still is, the game is as such. You do not have the endurance to once again dive into finding why the detesting; regardless, that was not your question. Certainly there are many answers to each of the disputes, doubts, contests, either from a Watsonian perspective, or an explanation from the Doylist side, fulfiling the need for such design. You do not care any more, not about that question, nor its possible answers. At the end of the day, you have, and you did, play the game. The question now is simple, as you did not ask this before, therefore you are here, still struggling, to find the answer for why playing it, because apparently, you do not know it.


Hang on a moment. Is it – ?


What is it now you are doing? You are about to click the icon again. You are going to play it again. Your feelings are falling down forever into the unknown depths of the oblivion. So unhappy with it, yet why is the cursor over that icon, which will prompt its launcher? Is it possible, that there is no reason? Are you playing it without any reason, as if it is a motor reaction? Are you seeking an answer that does not exist?

[*]​

The hasty clicks. Play. Launcher. Play. Loading screen. Single player. Load.

---

CHAPTER V​

Hello ottos.


The last war brought riches, and with the good economy, or good-enough-for-any-tag-at-the-beginning, now it seems to go into buildings.

Already built ten of them; five each, temples and workshops. The rest is not worth to invest at this early age, except for the marketplace in the city. And...

There is only one building type to be constructed at the earliest possible date, as soon as it is affordable: Manufactories. They will not only bring monthly income, generally higher than the former two, for a long time; but they will increase the goods produced, therefore increasing the total value of the trade node of the provinces they are built. This in turn improves the income from trade, but it has to be built early to fully benefit from it. On the other hand, none of the buildings look profitable enough to consider, as their costs are high in comparison to what they provide, if that is the concern at all. Shaking head, pushing the mouse-button, ordering two manufactories to construct.

This kind of planning, such as breakthrough, or return-investment, or whatever, will make the player fall from the grace in no-time, therefore avoiding such non-sense. That fantasy parameter is not to be applied, but the monthly net income is the objective. Five temples may cost five hundred (500), and they may generate zero-comma-five (0,5) ducats per month each, for a grand total of two-comma-five (2,5) ducats. If the player falls into the delirium of wondering when the investment will be returned, the mathematics are obvious. Never. In seventeen (17) years the political map will change so drastically, the buildings that prompt such mathematics will be forgotten. In any case, this type of profit-hunting lunacy belongs to… whatever, different subject, not related to this one.

The objective is the monthly net income, and two-comma-five (2,5) ducats mean being able to build and maintain at least two (2) cannons. Carry on.

Yes. In game, the entire economy of the ming-tag can depend on its tributaries; the colonisers can earn enormous amounts from trade; and yet, even merchant republic tags under the control of a player can make any node the richest, so colonising is needless for them; besides, a mughal-tag can turn the persia node into a de facto end-node, making it the centre of the world, by just constructing manufactories - so production and trade income; gold-provinces are fraud, not the subject of this topic, therefore the economy of austria-tag depends on other means: Vassals.

A player of any tag with a vassal-set will see they are not worth the effort when the extra fees they pay to the overlord are considered; vassalisation is generally limited for five to eight of them, due to the limited diplomatic relation slots, but they still provide power in terms of military. Yet there are two tags to benefit from hoarding even more vassals, namely the vassal-swarm, thus having significant boost to net income by vassal fees. Yes, either the holy-roman-emperor tag, which is arguably austria for most of the time, and the shogun tag, which is generally ashikaga. They do not have any limit, so spend no diplomatic relation slot, for having vassals. Well, for the holy-roman-emperor, after Proclaim Erbkaisertum reform, and with only imperial vassals. That is another economy model. But moving forward, there is yet another economy in the game: War.

War is the only economy model that is credible as doomed by the game design upon players. There does not exist any other comparable option in the game, and unfortunately, its argument by depending itself on the plausibility is overwhelming, therefore you accept it. Or – you tell the argument sd off due to being tired of it. You are not happy with this design, as every other income-type passively or directly depends on this, the aspect of war. Games of war sell more; you have not encountered a game of cultivating and growing so far. Obsessive-click types do not count. It would be interesting if there had been any. Carry on, you are not the target customer at all; you are playing the game for… what, you do not know.

Enough of pseudo-economics. Though, despite its static flow, admirable mathematical model of trade, you pay your respect for it. Carry on. Check bosnia-tag, recent ally. Good enough relationship. Welcome bosnia, the new vassal.

Check shirvan-tag. Eh, they are still resisting the charms of the Offer Vassalisation button. This will not resume much longer; when the date hits September 1490, your lost diplo-rep due to annexing vassals will be restored, then it will be a different talk with the shirvan-tag.

Check oman-tag. They are there, still alive, not dragged into an ally war. Yes, that is a risk, while waiting for a tag to be vassalised, the target can be called upon to, or perhaps can itself initiate, a war. The target must be at peace. Not the overlord, though. Any tag can vassalise any other while at war.

The new provinces after the last war, along with the vassals: Trabzon, Erzurum, Erzincan, they belong to the crimea-node of trade, and they are of another superregion. This means the lands can be left to trade company. Funny. This design, which came so late, after all the turmoil of baffling trade company regions. They were on Africa continent and on China and India sub-continents of Asia; that was one of the reasons for anger, while playing any tag outside Europa. Only europa-tags could use them; hey, the game has the name in it, right? Right? Eh. The others had less chance, due to being on the same continent with the predetermined trade company regions. Then came the expansion with the name emperor, introducing trade companies finally to be established anywhere outside the sub-continent of the capital. It was admirable, but there was no patience left to share that admiration at that point. You did not even bother with whatever came after that. It is a pity, since playing as a polynesian-tag did appeal to your interest. Now comes the sorrow of lost hopes, surrounding with an ever powerful mist.

Heralds rush, the portugal-tag declares war on the morocco-tag; the new old-kid on the block aragon-tag declares on the tunis-tag. Besides, papal state calls for a crusade. A bit much, is it not, code? But it can barely handle it, so it does not spare any expenses. North Africa plan is not there yet; your eyes catch the samstkhe-tag. More provinces for crimean trade company. The war starts and ends within months. Circessia-tag is not happy, as their fellow orthodox dies out; minor setback, yet as their vassalisation is not possible until they lose their cores you hold, not problematic. Carry on.

Diet convenes, and the nobility, stylised as ümera for localisation, shares its desire for the syrian-provinces of the mamluk-tag. You start to think; is it the time? Accept the mission, at least it gives early claims. The perma-claims on the mamluk-tag are not acquired yet. A plan can still be devised; the earlier the better. Move out some of the forts; building castles. Prepare for any possibility.

Check North Africa; iberian-tags devoured large portions of their enemies. You may accelerate some plans for that part of the world. Send diplomats to the morocco-tag. The next time portugal-tag hits, let the code see what happens.

Perhaps it is now ideal to consider the ideas to better ideation (yet another smooth one, filcat. You are killing it. Yeah.). So the ideas – Hang on.

Hang on.


This sound.


You have not heard this sound for years. Only when you wanted it. Only when you planned for it. Only when you asked for it. With your actual plans, the code would not, the code could not do it. It cannot be. Is it real?


Yes, it is.


Your face stretches with the ever-joyful smile. Your eyes are shining, you can see the reflection even through the dull screen that cannot reflect. Such enthusiasm was not there at all, since… since… it has been years, you have not been thrilled as such.


Incredible. You are incredibly happy. Maybe, the code is alive, functioning, calculating. Is it? Your sitting position is adjusting, your head leans forward, your hands get ready on keyboard and mouse. You cannot believe the delightful moment of hearing that sound, and the reaction it causes on you.


Your own calculations run through the cells, carrying the information packages from one neuron to another; the mind is roaring with the corks rotating. You will investigate what may have caused it later; your moves were safe, dull, ordinary, ever-overpowering. Regardless, the investigation will be done much later, as this may take some time.


Austria-hungary-tag declares war.


Calling for poland-tag.


Calling for all its allies.



Calling for all, to a conquest-cb, on you.

The power of the music has already surrounded your words, as the surprise forges the dreams of hope, lost long ago.

Spoiler: Dreams of hope

[**]​

Yes. This will take a bit more than usual.




[*] Still-images from Lost, S.1, Ep. 5, The White Rabbit (a. Matthew Fox, Terry O'Quinn)
[**] In a Skyforged Dream, from the album Extreme Power Metal, by DragonForce, 2019
Audio by the official account of the band is also available, but it is not accessible outside most of europe.

Edit 22.10.2023: Corrected factual, formatting, grammatical, semantic, typographical, notation mistakes, and missing words.

 

[filcat]

The grey blanket preventing the rays of photons over wavelengths is certainly smaller in mass, so the shining is brighter in the eyes than before.


The trap of the question is another certainty, as the why will lead the answers to fall into the realm of fantasy. That is not the time the word fantasy holds a meaning that is appealing. The why can blur the curiosity. Any explanation it can give will stretch the reality thin, force it into meaningless cacophony, make the mind lazy. The how, which is the only reliable source of responding to the curiosity, is the only tool available for discovering the mechanisms behind the phenomena, so the unnecessary mystifying replies can be diminished into nullity, bringing the knowledge from the material into the level of the mind to name it, to understand it, and then to use it, if there is the need; thus the how annuls any reason for the why to exist.

---

The methodology starts with the simple step; a question, or many of them. The driving force, the energising fuel, the underlying cause. Models can be proposed to make a meaning out of the problem at hand; hypothesise. The claims are the backbones of the steps to follow in order to find, to answer, to understand. Naturally they may depend on other previous assumptions or the ones devised for the problem of the moment. Based on claims and assumptions, tools are ready for tests. Testing, experimenting, trying, scrutinising. Do the tests bring an answer? When it is a gigantic no, then try again, but with different parameters. When the amount of failures is piling up, then the time for scrutinising the claims and the assumptions comes. Maybe the approach of the question itself is wrong in that regard. Besides, the answer of no is another door for wonders: This is how it proceeds, the methodology. The answer of no, as well as the yes, both do the similar job. Either the claim is proven, or the hypothesis fails, and both mean a knowledge to be shared. Next group will try another claim, as the previous claim is reported to be a failure. This is the methodology.

What happens when the answers satisfy the claims in a positive manner? Then the theory comes at the stage. Yes. A theory is not a word to be wasted in false semantics of well in theory it may work, but in practice it is different, etc. No, that sentence has no meaning, as the words are used in absolute false sense of their existence. A theory explains all the mechanisms of a claim, which is a hypothesis. After the theory is established, the round of laws begins. That is how the first law of thermodynamics, second law of nature, so motion, law of electromagnetic force come into effect, and the list is not exhaustive, and the list is beautiful. A theory is not an ethereal stream of empty dreams, but an explanation that can be proven by multiple, independent, and repeated attempts. That is how a rocket is able to propel above atmosphere and into inner space and beyond. That is how an aeroplane carrying tens or hundreds flies through the atmosphere at an altitude above the ground. It is called the theory of flight. The grouping of the theory and the practice, on the other hand, is a concept that can be only applied in medical disciplines, and that is also outside of the failing assumptions of the semantics used in everyday colloquialisms. They are not contradicting notions in medicine, but complementing each other. For the other disciplines, it is a theory and an application, and again, they follow, bind, complete each other, as application is used in similar manner to practice.

The process of assumptions, postulates, hypotheses, tests, theories, and laws may also give a wrong idea of the last one in the entry. The laws are not unchangeable, constant, forever steady results, but they evolve, are falsified, are re-questioned, are re-tested, are re-evaluated facts. The law is an explanation of the theory in a narrowed control volume, whereas the theory is the one explaining the entire mechanism. This is the process.

***​

In the most simplistic terms, that is how, when the century was seventeen in the common era, Sir Isaac Newton proposed the lift to be proportional to the square of the angle of attack of a plate facing the incoming air, the square of its velocity, and the surface of that plate. His model leads to a calculation of thousand (1000) square-meters of wing surface area for a flying object with a weight of about hundred (100) kilograms, assuming ten (10) metres per second as gravitational acceleration, and that object can move in thirty-six (36) kilometres per hour. If the square of the angle of attack of that plate is taken as the focus of a relation, then according to that model it is directly proportional to the lift force, and inversely related to the surface area times the square of the velocity. This parameter, square of the angle of attack, then can be labelled as the coefficient of the lift. This, lift coefficient being quadratically related to angle of attack, renders any application of flight impossible, therefore it could not explain the flight.

Well, he did not have the necessary tools for advanced tests in that age of the earth rotating around the sun.

***​

The empirical data with the paragliding tests came from Otto Lilienthal, but the century was nineteen in the common era. He also demonstrated that it is possible to control an aeroplane with fixed wings by changing the centre of gravity, so for paragliding, through body motions, effectively opening further possibilities of flight dynamics. He dedicated his life for the flight, for the process, for the future of the humankind, and he shared his results as he never stopped asking questions, testing, and publishing, until he crashed on ground in his last paragliding test.

Those data inspired more questions, but the calculations for an effective lifting body were already under progress with increased curiosity by that age. Martin Kutta and Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukowski proposed another model, one that relates the force of the lift per unit length of a body to the density of the air, the velocity of the air – or the velocity of the body, and the circulation of the air around that body. The Kutta-Zhukowski theorem is able in explaining the unit-force based on this circulation, which is the integral of velocity vector field around a closed contour, or a curve. The integral of this unit-force over entire wing gives the total lift force. In the end, it was demonstrated that the lift coefficient is linearly related to the angle of attack, not quadratically, and times two (2) and π, as the calculations involved integration over complex numbers.

The equation depends on many assumptions, as applicable only for inviscid flow, but still accurate for real viscous yet steady flows, later it was shown, as more advanced approaches were applied for better details, and more advanced tools of testing became available, both intrusive and non-intrusive. Current acceptable model is the lifting-line theory of lift, and that has another story. But the story at hand, they made an impact on anyone, who read those results.


Two bicycle makers in 17 December 1903 demonstrated that it is possible to fly a body, which is heavier than air, employing fixed wings, using an internal combustion engine, and controllable for a sustainable flight. While carrying a human-being.

Their example was only for one passenger, which was the pilot, Orville Wright. The next flights were consecutively performed by him and Wilbur Wright. How they did it, was obvious, because they were curious, but they knew they lacked the formal education, yet they did not boast about their deficiency in that regard, but read the scientific publications to remedy it. They read every work Lilienthal published, thus they learnt what a lift coefficient was, how the lift force could be calculated, what size of wing they would require. Among with many other works. What level of power they would need, therefore what size the engine should be, how long the runway had to be, how they could control the aeroplane.

***​

The point is, even if the lift model of Newton failed, his tools of calculus, as well as laws of motion, are still in use, as they are proven in every case encountered so far. When the theory of motion failed for mechanics of much smaller sizes, namely the quantum, the failure did not stop the questions. It opened more doors to other questions, and currently theory of matter waves using Schrödinger’s equations is applicable for a description of the quantum mechanics, and leading to Higgs mechanism for mass generation. It was not even seen as failure at all, as the everyday colloquialism introduces garbage phrases such as scientists in shock, they cannot explain this, theory fails, read-or-click to learn what it is, etc. Claiming that Newton was wrong as a general argument is meaningless, just as saying Daniel Bernoulli was not right about the equation is hollow argument, or any other example, that can extend the list into infinity. Bernoulli equation, or the principle, is still in use, and it is an extraordinarily useful tool. That false relation of lift force did not stop the process, no, that is not a failure or collapse of theories or reason to absurdly abandoning the process; this is exactly what the process is: Asking questions. Therefore it proceeded through ages, and it was corrected and improved and explained with better answers as the technology advanced, and advancing again owing to those proposed and newly devised theories.

***​

What you are doing right now is, of course, procrastinating. It is obvious, as the question of why fails to provide any credible answer, and the question of how is infinitely comfortable, but the question in focus is a human behaviour. The question of how overpowers the question of why, but considering the motion, the action, the choices of the organisms, the why is an applicable linguistic tool to use in this case.

Why you are playing this game, it is still unclear.

Only a side-route, a rouse, a detour, as none of the answers provided a satisfactory explanation so far. The basis arguments that were quickly overlooked? They are the explanations for writing, not playing, used as assumptions to define the control volume of the problem. The map? Null argument, it is by default loved, regardless of the game. The nostalgic hope for lost love? Irrelevant, as it is still played in the mind even if the software is not running. The game itself? Not acceptable, since the strategic choices quickly diminish in the arcade style of its design. The history aspect of the game? Not applicable, the game is limited in its depiction, and its simulation aspect does not exist. Besides, its own direction is aimless, varying violently between a real-simulation and a realism-simulation with historical basis; occasionally it falls into arcade-absurdities. Then there remains the hatred for the game? At this point it is sufficient to say that the word is an exaggerated form of agitation, as the feelings are under investigation.

Therefore you try to change the question, as well as the direction of the approach, because you were about to conclude with that there is no reason at all for playing this game. It is just that you want to play this game. A futile, an empty, a blank answer.

---

Then assume that you had, have, will have a reason to play this game. Then what will happen when you figure out what it is? Will it disappoint you further? Will it make you accept the fact, if it is a reasonable fact at all? Or will it be an answer that defies your hatred? Do you actually hate this game?

These are for the unknown future when an answer can be devised. Now with the new approach, you can go back in the steps to open further fronts to battle with the question.


Enough of this loitering. The cursor is already hovering over the icon. Be done with it.


Click-click. Wait a second. Click. Wait a couple of seconds. Click. Wait a couple more seconds. Click. Click.

---

CHAPTER VI​

Hello ottos.


The initial thrill has been brought under control, after the first moves of the war.


Your initial reaction, after enjoying the delight of the surprise move of the code, was advancing the military research. There is no equivalent to technology as a comparison for military might in the design of the game. None of the idea sets, none of the advisors, and certainly no amount of army size can overcome the advantages that the technology can provide. Therefore it is the certain move the player can safely make, as soon as the military research is filled up, during a war. The severity of the war situation can alter the decision, but it is obvious that the code made a counter-move, thus it forces the player to advance in technology, even if it is three (3) years ahead of time.

Only after the technology advancement, conscripting janissaries is the logical next step. It is generally pointless to recruit troops during a war, as it prematurely drains the manpower for army; but it is the ottos, therefore the Janissary units, which can be conscripted right away, without spending manpower. Only few tags have such an advantage; muscovy-russia tag or any russian-principality-tag, veche republic tags, and some of the hordes that can call Banner units, but that will consume a lowered amount of manpower.

A reasonable amount of military points was spent for the jannisaries, but you keep those points at a good enough level. During a war, especially after cannons, one should always stock up military points, to be used for barraging in sieges, and hiring generals. Yes, the fighting capability of the game is low, thus it creates cheap problems to the player. Your turbo-general can suddenly go into the chronic disease of never-breathing again (bravo, filcat, so smooth, as if an ice. Freezing here), especially just as the move-command is employed, and the armies are clashing. Few times the generals may die within the shock phase of the fight, which is, arguably acceptable. Other times, the code will use all its powers, not to fight, but to annoy the player.


Few events happened, giving you few advantages. Founding the Enderun Academy was a lucky strike, giving a small increase in army professionality, and 2,5% additional discipline.

Another event, related to estates, with the name An Army Career, gives additional army tradition, which is very useful, in order to have improved pips for generals, as well as shorter siege times.

You checked the advisors, and army reformer Süleyman Gümülçineli was a good enough choice, providing +10% army morale.

All was set, and you entered the arena. Naturally, as you are the human-player, the code has little chance. As a turbo-tag, the code has miserable chances. But you are the otto-tag; thus, the code has no chance.


Yes, and as the battles raged, the initial thrill saturated. This is a suitable moment for an analysis of the situation.

The war was unexpected, this must be admitted. In this regard, it is certainly a failure of your own calculations, due to being the player of a turbo-tag, and out of them, the otto-tag. The war declaration upon you was not a controlled, expected, deliberate move, but a genuine surprise that hunted you down. Therefore the moves prior to the war have to be investigated, in order to understand what has caused this.

A list of possible reasons has to be compiled:

1. Restrained playstyle
2. Restrained advancement in technology
3. Vassal annexation

The first should explain the entire argument, as it makes the player to keep own overwhelming power at bay. The code will not consider this as a show of force, as it linearly proceeds through its calculations, without ever noticing what the player does or wants or feels. On the contrary, it will see it as a weakness as soon as it surpasses the player in terms of army force size, currently recruited-active army, and the technology level. Your forces were less in numbers than the attacking alliance of austria-tag, including its personal union hungary-tag, and its allies: Poland-tag, with its pu-lithuania-tag, its vassal danzig-tag; ingolstadt-tag, and its pu-landshut-tag.

The austria-tag also advanced in military technology of 8 earlier than you, as the second point. You kept your monarch points safe to wait for three (3) years of research, as it was not beneficial to advance early, since not being the first, it would not bring any bonus-innovativeness gain. This is one of the misty points of the game; innovativeness gain.

When the neighbours are advancing in tech earlier than the tag, the one lacking in tech will receive a small amount of technology cost reduction. This is understandable. However, when a tag advances first on the globe, or within the same year of another tag researching that technology, that inno-bonus is gained. The mystic part comes with the latter condition: Not only that is a bit confusing, but what happens when the tag is somewhere else on the globe that is not yet discovered, that is still unanswered, even if the code is open to read, and even if has been years that the mechanic was first introduced. The subject is still confusing, but left such questions to rot in their own mess, since not caring about it any more.

In any case, when a tag has a turbo-ruler, meaning 13-monarch or with more total monarch points, the technology will not be a serious problem at all, as innovativeness will be gained by first advancing that tech. Besides, being ahead of time also increases the inno-level of a tag, with very small increments, over time; but the opposite condition will cause it to be lost, double the amount of gain.

Therefore you kept your military points in the bank, and minded your own business. The austria-tag made a move in the technology, therefore checked one more condition for its calculation to initiate an attack.

The third part, ah, vassals. Yes, that is the main reason. After annexing, you were left with two marches. The only allies were shirvan-, oman-, and bosnia-tags. After the previous wars, you diplo-vassalised bosnia-tag, but still did not increase your number of allies nor vassals; you were waiting. That is the main cause, as the code directly calculated this, realised the difference in military force limit, for extended time enough to make its move. Vassals do not only pay fees and vassal-code-armies for the player. Any subject, that is not a tributary, nor a personal union, will provide an actual increase in force limit to the overlord. This is one of the main reasons to have vassals. Allies do not provide such benefits. Besides, an ally can, and will, betray. Vassals in this game, do not have such an interaction, as long as their liberty desire levels are below 50%. Yes, as if that can be any concern for a turbo-tag player, and the player is the ottos. So betrayal from vassals will never happen at this point of the game.

In time, the development level of the vassals will improve, as the code manages its resources for that, and thus even relatively small subjects will have increased liberty desire. Add this to ruling over multiple vassals, then it may require some attention. Maybe. But never during the first age, and such concerns will go away forever when the last age of the game arrives, that is, Age of Revolutions. Yes, ridiculously, age abilities of that era will wipe out any liberty desire. That is, of course, if any run makes its way to that age. That is a subject to be looked upon, much, much later.



The conclusion is that yes, the code is alive, calculating, functioning properly but within its own limitations as have been mentioned so far, up to this point. The actual reasons for the attack of the austria-hungary-tag were already given, and their summary is that it is your own fault, as you waited too long to finish it.

It is certainly a welcome-fault in this regard, as the surprise genuinely caught your interest, increased your senses, and boosted your excitement. You do know that, had it been another tag, such a mistake would be detrimental for the run. But, you are the ottos in this run.


There is no hope for the code, but only the gates of hades.

And music.

Spoiler: Welcome to the gates of hades, code

[*]
​

[*] Tempest of Blades, bonus track of the album Circus of Doom, 12'' Vinyl release, by Battle Beast, 2022

Edit 03.07.2023: Corrected format, grammatical, typographical mistakes. Adjusted image sizes. Added missing threadmark label.

 

[filcat]

It was clear at one unit of time, then it was again the gathering of the water molecules, which can be explained by the adiabatic cooling. The beautiful word in the first place, adiabatic stands with the meaning there, signifying the process of the ideal, in which no heat exchange occurs, yet applicable with reasonable assumptions in great effect for the conditions of the real. The cooling causes the condensation, the amorphous shapes of cumuli cover the skies in the end. They block the rays of the light for the point of view, at the time on that latitude and longitude of the earth facing the sun. The day may not shine the hope radiantly upon the ones expecting it, yet the light travels through the atmosphere, diffused through the reflections over the molecules of the air.

---

Assuming the existence of the unknown in a problem is not a unique process, but rather a common methodology. When the mathematics is considered, such a methodology is ordinary as a tool among many others.

The first, the quickest, the clearest example comes with the existence of the square operator, or rather the inverse of it, the square root. It does not require intricate details of the number theory to explain this example, such as the Erdős-proof for the Bertrand’s postulate, a more elegant way than the one of Chebyshev. No, the basics will suffice. Simple does not hold a pejorative meaning when the subject involves scientific process.

Assuming a set of real numbers, which can be considered as points on an infinite line, including all types of rational and irrational numbers, the zero number indicates the basis of change in the direction, reflected as positive and negative numbers. Accelerating the definition to reach the example; the square of a positive number is another positive number, an integer, thus being a positive integer, a member of natural number subset, and just as that one, the square of a negative number, so not a natural number, but a negative integer, is again another positive number, a positive integer. The integer numbers constitute only a subset of the rational numbers, and that is also a subset of the real numbers. From real to rational to integer to natural to zero, one, prime, composite numbers. The list of beauty.

The inverse of this square operator, the square root; when this operator is applied on a positive real number, the result can be either a real positive or a real negative number. Then remains the question: What is the square root of a negative real number? The answer is, none, as that does not exist by definition. Then what is there to do when such a process is encountered?

Assume a result.

Complex numbers, which is the superset of the real numbers, are achieved with this assumption.

In order to provide a specific example, the negative integer -1 can be considered. The square of (-1), and that of (+1), is (+1); so (+1)^2=(-1)^2=(+1). The square root of (+1) is either (+1) or (-1), so (+1)^1/2=(+1)OR(-1). The square root of (-1) does not exist in the set of real numbers. Therefore, assume the result, as (i). This result can be used in the square operator as (i)^2=(-1). Consequently, (-i)^2=((-1)^2).((i)^2)=(-1).

Yes, the notation is given as (i), indicating that as an imaginary number. The square root of (-1) does not exist in the set of real numbers, but it does exist in the superset of it, the complex numbers. They have two parts: A real number, and an imaginary number. For the case of square root of (-1), it is (0+i), or (0-i), so the real part is zero, the imaginary is (i).

So… what?

Well, Jean-Robert Argand proposed to express the complex numbers on a plane, assuming it as number with a direction, in the beginning of the century that was nineteenth in common era. Thus became the definition of complex numbers: A vector. Defining on a plane naturally drew the attention on it to be expressed in Cartesian coordinates. By that time, it was already common in mathematics, as Jacob Bernoulli had studied the limit of the infinite series of (1+1/n)^n long before, reaching a constant. Leonhard Euler termed the constant number as (e), which is (2,78…). It was the age in the wake of John Napier’s Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio – The Wonderful Canon Description of Logarithms. The number (e=2,78…) is the base of this logarithm operator, leading to the definition of natural logarithm.

Enter the polar coordinates. As the complex numbers are defined as vectors, then they can be expressed in polar coordinates, too. If the point of a complex number in Cartesian coordinates, (z)=(x+(i).(y)), is expressed on the complex plane, with the vector pointing from origin to the point (z), then there is the angle, expressed as (φ), the argument. The length of the vector is (r), the modulus. This means, the trigonometry can be employed. For the polar coordinates, Euler devised the formula by expanding the Taylor series over sinus and cosinus. So, with the Euler’s formula, the complex number can be expressed in polar coordinates as (z)=(r).(cos(φ)+(i).sin(φ)), thus (z)=(r).(e)^((i).(φ)).

So, again. What does this provide?

Oh.

Chair of mathematics for complex numbers. Complex algebra. Mathematics for waves. For electricity. For alternating currents – thank you again Nikola Tesla. For electronics. For circuit-boards. For processors. For computers. In that space, software and codes. In the end, computer games. That is how you are able to play this game.

---

Yet, the question is that why you are playing this game. The mathematical approaches cannot be applied on human behaviour, as the human-beings are highly non-linear functions, operating in chaotic systems, showing great volatility in their results. That is not the intention at all, as it would be silly.

But similar methodology as the complex algebra is considered, so to be applied for the problem of finding a reason for playing this game. A modestly abstract analogy. Assuming there is a reason – or maybe there are multiple of them – to play this game. You leave the limits of the control volume you devised as they are, so you rewound only up to the problem of wanting or not.

The assumption merely saves the process from falling into the trap of resorting to banal explanations. You play this game as you want to, etc. Well, you said you do not want to play this game at the beginning, yet it is clear by observing the empirical data up to this point, of course you want to play this game, do you not? With hate or love, that is not clear, but you already installed it, started it, and even played it so far. That is a null statement in this problem. But then, why do you want to, and specifically, why this game?


The map?

But that was discarded, was it not? It occurred first as the reason of love. It was given as the greatest one among other explanations, it then became unsatisfactory. It was further elaborated as an appreciation of the geography that is depicted digitally, yet it was labelled as the charming art that pleases the mind but by default and regardless of the game, thus it was negated into null argument, completely detached from questioning the reason for playing the game.

The love for maps in this quest certainly underwent quite the adventure, judging by the above summary. Why? The maps are attractive, colourful, or verbal, as they mirror the eyes of those that drew them in the past. From the initial attempts that changed the centre according to the point of perspective, to the ones generated by satellite imaging techniques. The map, the projection, the scale, the type, this is what you love. Using that word does not even bother you, you do not even calm the mind by humble limits of using the word like, the meaning exactly defines the feeling you have. It is love, when the maps are considered.

But the map of this game? Smart, neat, tidy. It does certainly awaken the first reaction, as the resolution is far superior to whatever examples there are as comparisons. Excluding the cousins of this game, of course. But you do remember those other examples since the early days of computer games. Giant squares, vector-renderings, interesting pseudo-isometric views, then full-isometric yet unrealistic edges, lines, polygons, thus hexagons, and there were some that never had maps. Borders dividing entire continents into hilariously low number of units, implausible, unattractive, uninteresting. Then this game, and her cousins. It was shown that it is possible to display the entire scope of the globe, but with greater resolution. Granted, crusader kings focused on the world excluding a large part of it, but its context supports this decision, as there was not enough interaction in the history between the continents separated by the oceans. However, this never satisfied as an answer for excluding the enormous part of Asia, despite the relevance. A minor but significant problem of crusader kings, but she is not the subject of this endeavour.

And this game, and the map. Complete globe. Pseudo-Mercator projection, with acceptable modifications, but barely. Problematic sides have already started to show themselves. But this is not a critical point to focus, not yet. Scaling, by swift zoom function. This is beautiful.

Then come the borders. World does not have borders, but the political construct forces those. The borders depicted in the game, they are acceptable, as a general overview. There are certainly inconsistent parts, and they are hunted down as they are found and pointed out.

The geography. It is beautiful to see the details of the mountains and the lakes, the rivers and the forests. But then, there are impassable zones. Now the serious problems begin. The technical reasons start to ponder, and the abstract constraints are applied to economise the resolution of available space. That is the only reason to view such artificial limits. All right, it may be seen as redundant to open the desert of Sahara to roam it, yet it does not stop there. Still no credible explanation exists to have central and south Africa inaccessible as such. Then the great plains of America is free to walk through by the colonisers, whereas that part could not be touched by them until the nineteenth century of common era. And the forests of Europa. There they are, wide open, accessible, unconstrained. It should not be possible for a mass of tens of thousands to pass through the Black Forest in southern Germany. Yet, it is there, and the north of Siberia is off-limits.

All right, so far, some inconsistencies. Simplifications on the map; perhaps reasonable from the design-perspective. Maybe.


Before clicking the icon twice, you hesitate, as the actual issues emerge in the mind. You do remember them. Even in this quest as you played, you have already encountered those. Now you are questioning the map, as it is tied to every other aspect of the game.


You hear the double-click, and the after-clicks follow them quickly, as if phantom-reactions of your fingers, while you dive into the sea of issues in your mind; those you have been questioning since the first time you bought, installed, and played the game, years ago. You remember. The screen appears, and you load the game.

---

CHAPTER VII​

Hello ottos.

Enough of this war. The surge of the excitement by the surprise that was only due to player-mistake; it diminishes after a couple of years of the game-run.



The reasons for such a fall in the delight of the thrill are readily looking at you, because of the choices made by the code. The code does not consider the map. For the code, there is no map. That is your fault again, assuming the code could see the map as you do.

The code is not the human-player, it does not know what rivers, mountains, deserts, plains, peninsulas, islands, straits, passes are. It only processes numbers, and they are elements in an adjacency matrix to be used in calculations for the code, and no other meaning they can have for it. Needless to say, the calculations of the code depend on those numbers, modelling the map for its process.

The code does not consider it absurd to move its units from Iberia to Kamchatka. If it is affordable, and with the low simulation elements of the model, yes it is, then the code executes the action. A human-player can do it too, but there is another parameter, which the code will always have, forever, in infinite reserves, never-to-be-exhausted: The patience. A human-player does not have the patience to move units in order to traverse entire continents just to fight the units of the code.


You may have caused the attack by your mistake, as you have not played the game for a very long time. Reactions slow down, reflexes accumulate rust, memories of timings slip away. But repeated experience increases the senses, the memory packages of saved-information recur, practices that had become reflex-habits come back, as you play again. The surprise attack was none other than a correct calculation of the code, triggered by your own delay.

And there is no need to panic while playing the otto-tag. It was said before; the only reason for a run with the otto-tag is to have a calm, relaxed, smooth experience. All is under the control of the player, as soon as the first unpause is initiated, while playing as the otto-tag. Only few tags have such luxury; a player has to give extra-effort to collapse as the ming-tag. The usual line-up, the france-, the england-, the castile-, the muscovy-, the mamluks-, and even the portugal-tag; they have no issues in playing without caring. The england-france tags have the predetermined event-war, then it will be the ever-reign of the player. The austria-tag can be added to the list, but that has the emperor-election risk along its course. The ottos? No risk, none, nought.

Well, the only problem is the saturation level of a run. The player with the otto-tag will reach that point in lightning speed, if the playstyle is hyper-aggressive in terms of conquests and technology advancement. Once that point is reached, there remains no objective to play, as the non-existing simulation dies away, invalidating the code, putting it out-of-action. It is therefore the only objective, to keep the code alive, calculating, functioning, while playing a turbo-tag, and especially as the ottos.



The initial surge of excitement by the surprise burns out because of itself, so explained above. The code-austria already lost its imperial election to the code-bohemia. This drives the code to frenzy-level, acting as insanity-wolf-meme, running rabid from one war to another, until it exhausts itself. It is a pity that it chose the player-ottos as its target. Pity, as this means the austria-tag will lose its power to be considered as an eligible rival for the player-ottos, after the war.


Yes, after the war, as there is only one conclusion for the code in that: Defeat. Utter, complete, absolute defeat.

Not only because of the war being against the player, not only because the player is the ottos, not only because the incapability of the code in waging wars.

The war was started by austria-hungary tag, and it called its allies to arms. The allies, poland-lithuania-danzig and ingolstadt-landshut tags. Their war effort focuses on around the war objective, as much as the code can manage to calculate it, but unfortunately, significant amount of their armies rushes towards the outer edges of the target. In the case of player-ottos, that is crimea and caucasus. This is the modus operandi of the code, wasting every resource for no apparent gain. As the player hunts them down, the warscore keeps up piling for the player. As the player begins to occupy the attacking party – also, it does not matter for aggression or defensive wars – the war exhaustion piles up for the code.

Then, the opportunists arrive at the scene.

In this case, of course the bohemia-tag, berserking on the poland-lithuania-tag. The reason of the code is simple: At one point, the austria-tag will not be able to answer the defensive call-to-arms of its allies, so betrayals follow up. The defeat by the player will ruin the economy of the code, and not to mention the loss of provinces, thus what remains in the aftermath is a formerly powerful tag, losing all its potential, leaving its allies alone, being pushed to the brink of collapse.

And it is the ottos, so no cheap effort by the code can prevent it. It is inevitable, even if the code triggers a pretender-event for the player-ottos, rising in the province of Korinth. Even if the code makes some reasonable panic-choices, such as hiring condottieri from the burgundy-tag.

Therefore, utter, complete, absolute defeat of the code.

The victory of the human-player is inevitable, in most cases. For a turbo-tag player, there is no doubt of it for almost all scenarios. But the player is the otto-tag.


The drums are rolling, the guitars are screaming, the violin is crying, but the power of the beats cannot hide the melancholy, as the code is falling forever.

Spoiler: Dawn is nigh

[*]
​

[*] Dawn of Victory, from the album with the same name, by Rhapsody of Fire (2000)

Edit 02.07.2022: Corrected typographical, formatting, grammatical, lexical mistakes. Rearranged the image-matrix. Corrected mathematical error.

 

[filcat]

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.

---

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.

[*]

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 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.

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.

Spoiler: Bonny at Morn

[**]
​

[*] 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.

 

[filcat]

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.

---

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 byza – 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.

Spoiler: Time to relax

[*]
​

[*] 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.

 

[filcat]

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.

---

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:

Send diplomats to the morocco-tag. The next time portugal-tag hits, let the code see what happens.

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.

Spoiler: And the party is coming to you, portugal

[*]​

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.

 

[filcat]

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.

---

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.

Spoiler: Proceed

[*]
​

[*] 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.

 

[filcat]

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.

---

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.

Spoiler: 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.

 

[filcat]

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.

---

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.

---

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.

Spoiler: All do end.

[*]​

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.

Spoiler: The nervous waiting continues.

[**]​

[*] 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.

 

[filcat]

And the rain does not stop, and the clouds do not seem to disperse any time soon, and the grey colour will remain at the top, for the eyes looking from the ground. But there is no direction of above nor below in the coordinates of the real, and the gravitational field plays the game of illusion on the perception, and the beings feel trapped on the surface of the earth, yet they are both floating in the space, bound to rotate around the sun, and the system around the barycentre, and the galaxies around their galactic centres, and the universe…


And you are looking at the key. You try it in the lock of your questions.

And it fits. You turn the key inside the lock.

And it opens. You push the door.

And the answers pour, and they are many, and they are uncontrollable.

System Warning

You are looking at the key inside the lock on the door that is open, as you are playing the game that is simulated on the map proceeding in time. The illusion of it was seen through, and the real lets itself be known in the awareness of your mind, bringing the new information you devised to yourself that you are playing it.

The game reaches the equilibrium point but the balance in it is regularly disrupted with the varying inputs. The events of the random nature try to enrich the illusion, but the events of the predetermined nature provide the arbitrary inputs, of which the code is unaware how to react against. In the end they become only enormous bonuses, for the tags the code is designed.

And it could still be interpreted as a greater challenge for the player to overcome, in the case of such advantages accumulating on the one side. The human-player can strive for dealing with such situations, seeing it as a difficulty to fight against, proceeding with the ambition to defeat the larger entity with a smaller one while having lesser advantages, else even with disadvantages.

So the abrupt inputs, which do create the unfair circumstances for the simulated process, even these can be regarded acceptable for the perspective of the human-player. But the code is not able to cope with this situation, and naturally it does not have the capability to fail against itself, thus it heavily depends on the existence of such scripted-events.

All such can be accepted, either through rigorously convoluted explanations or by grudging sneer of exhaustion under the encumbrance caused by them.

But you are still looking at the map, which is holding the key, that is simulating the history, over a certain period of time.

You are giving commands to the military units that are called armies, and they move from one waypoint to another accordingly, but over the map. You are seeing the map. You are above the map. You are looking at the earth in the simulation. In fact, you are looking down on the earth from the skies above.

System Warning – Failure – The Sentry is invalidated

And the code does not see the map, yet it does have the adjacency matrix to compute, calculating its equations through the system of functions, and giving the same commands. The same ones to the military units that are called armies it has also, and they move from one vertex to the another.

At this, the human-player and the code are similar. And the intention of the design for the code is to imitate the behaviour of the human. It fails. And your reason to play this game…?

System Warning – Unidentified breaches detected

It fails, but not due to the problems you recited over within the infinite-loops of the mind-jumps by the lucid-streaming of the subjects.

System Warning – Unrecognised commands

It fails, and that is applicable for the both. The human-player and the code fail together in the struggle of mimicking the life of the populations over the map within a certain period of time. The history might have happened differently, else it happened exactly as the simulation achieves at the very limited points of time with enormous assumptions, gross simplifications, extraordinary abstractions by the predetermined events embedded into it, yet neither the history nor the fiction has ever been the problem. The inputs change, so the outputs should be different. The coinciding points are there only as flavours for the story or advantages for the game-mechanics, but the flow of the commands through the lines of the code does have the fundamental assumption that simplifies the very concept you are seeing as the key of the problem that is bringing the incomprehensible abstraction to the simulation.

And even at this situation, the scripted-events; they can be regarded as the basis of the problem, to question why you are even playing this game. But no, they can still be accepted as challenges in advantages and disadvantages against the human-player. So they are not the main issues.

They are tied to every other aspect, as the map is, and as the design of simulation is formed through them. The arcade-absurdities are born out of it.



The warfare is the design of the simulation.


You think that the answer is so close to reach, but it is still a great distance you have to cover. To breathe for a moment of rest, you look at the icon.

It has been already clicked.

---

CHAPTER XIV​

Hello ottos.


You do know how this will proceed. Even the ottos know it.

The newest rival does not give any thrill, as the muscovy-tag is too far, too isolated, too insignificant for the player-ottos. It has not formed the russia-tag yet, it has not overcome its neighbours, and it will probably fall and rise again being eligible rival just as the others.

Even the code tries to mitigate the problem by giving a Craven trait to the ruler of the player-ottos, meaning -5% morale for the armies. Besides the detached nature of this random-event, since the ruler under the control of the player has been fighting from the beginning of his reign still getting the Craven trait, such does not matter even a bit. It can only prolong the inevitable, but by only slightly.


More monarch points accumulate, and the tech-level 13 is there; but before that, develop some of the provinces by a couple of points. Provinces have limited building slots, but increasing at multiples of 10, thus increasing the 9- or 19-dev provinces by 1 point suffices. Otherwise, invest the mil-points on hiring generals, the admin-points on either stability or for reducing the inflation, and the diplo-points on Mercantilism. Who knows what it means in the terms of the game, the mercantilism, but you do know that it has only an oblique relation to the actual terminology of the concept in economics. In the end, it increases the trade value of provinces, so the trade income increases, without actually increasing the production, nor upgrading any other infrastructure, nor improving the conditions of the population, but the game has none such concepts, except manufactories.

More ducats accumulate, so… build more manufactories.

It has been a while since the last war actually initiated by the player-ottos, and the piety scale can benefit from a bit more mysticism, and the mamluks-tag is still struggling in its long period of falling. One voice tells not to do it. The other overcomes the first. The collapse of the code is imminent, and there is no more ways to prevent it but it is time to accelerate that; the mamluks-tag is currently in the rival-phase in the cycle of valid-invalid-rivalry for the player, so, good for some more power projection. Hang on.

Spoiler: The clash of the voices

[*]​

With the conquest of the entire coast of Egypt from Sharqiya to Bingazi, the mamluks-tag is effectively out of the Mediterranean competition for the trade flow. The provinces of and around Alexandria, now Iskenderiye, can be assigned to trade company charter. This will hyper-boost the trade income, as well as the total trade value of the home node in the city. Therefore the player-ottos has a significant chance to spawn Global Trade in the future. That is, if only the run can be sustained until that time.


During the war, the date hit 1550, and another institution was announced: the Printing Press has arrived.

Funny concept that is, the printing press as a new institution. The idea of mass production of literary works, colloquially called books (wooow filcat, you are a true comedian), is regarded as a revolutionary concept. Funny side is that it had been already in practice since the Han dynasty around third century on the other side of the world. Other side, as when viewing the world with a distorted perspective from the pseudo-continent of Europa. First samples of printing on paper can be found dating back to Tang dynasty around ninth century. Even the first movable type printing and the birth of typography is dated back to eleventh century during Song dynasty.

But the nineteenth century historiography pompously claims all the aspects of civilisation comes from a certain part of the world, called Europa, so there it is, the Printing Press, as an institution, in the game. Not complaining that much though, as the game before the institutions did have the ludicrous mechanics of westernisation. Thinking about those times is still eerily terrifying. Westernisation. For faqs sake.

Whatever. During the run, the Printing Press has arrived in… Groningen. Of course.


And what does this mean to the player-ottos?

None. It will spread out quickly around the europa-subcontinent, and the code-tags will embrace it sooner than the player. This still gives a hope, but it is almost gone at this point. Besides, among the six marches, the bosnia-tag will embrace it earlier, and it will again propose to propagate in the capital state of the player-ottos. There is not even a need to force-spawn it. If that was not the case, then the usual candidates would be Selanik or Izmir provinces to develop and wait for its spread. But now, the situation is fine. Let the code gain power against the player. At this point it turns into begging from hope.

But the date of 1550 means another event, too. The nervous waiting continues. Carry on.


Invest in the trade company infrastructure of the Egyptian Charter, and upgrade the trade centres. It will provide another merchant, the fourth, in due time. Of course the mamluks-tag is not a valid rival any more, as the news arrives after the war.

The tension of waiting intensifies. Recruit a couple of more cannons. Now the military is comprised of 96k troops. The excitement of the suspense is exceeding the hopes, which means the disappointment will be severe, but whatever. Just in case. Build a couple of more forts; yes, forts, even while playing a turbo-tag. They are generally disregarded, as a drain in economy, or due to their ineffectiveness. This is a gross mistake, dismissing the forts. The code runs over its functions to calculate the destinations it can reach. When there is a fort it cannot pass over, then it will recalculate another route. If the player does not cover up the realm with enough forts, the code will target the one province that is left out of the fort-zones. If covered, then it will struggle to find a target, and head on to the farthest castle to siege down. That is the modus operandi of the code. Deleting the fortifications will cause the player to chase down the code-units forever. The game is already operating at such conditions, there is no need to facilitate this delirious-process.


Anyway. Anxious of waiting; checking for neighbouring realms to pass the time. Yes, passing the time, as the illusion of the simulation has been broken into innumerable pieces, and it is sorrowing to see the moon of the nights shattering in front of the eyes. Bordering the ajam-tag in Mesopotamia. Then it is time to conquer Baghdad. Call the oman-tag too, your only ally, so it will also fight the enemy-ally the hormuz-tag, barring it from further conquests, so it can stay small to be vassalised soon.

Spoiler: Yes, code; you were the moon of my nights

[**]​

Well it took 17 months, but now reaching the gulf, and this means being very close to the last ally, the oman-tag. Still it has too much distance modifier for a vassalisation, but it will get there. In the meantime, the 12-monarch süleyman died, and the 12-monarch selim the second assumed the reign. Payment to janissaries tanked the treasury into debt, but it is recovered and paid off in no time. Carry on.


Carry on, however;

Yes, however. During the war, the event popped-up.


The event.


The name of the waiting with the slight hope. It will not be as expected, with very high probability, but the hope is still there.


The last hope for the code, to be a viable force against the player-ottos.

​

[*] Voices Within of the album An Elixir of Existence by Sirenia (2004)
[**] Moon of My Nights of the album Swampsong by Kalmah (2003)

Edit 07.07.2023: Corrected grammatical, semantic mistakes.

 

[filcat]

As the perception had developed prior to the advanced tests and calculations, the primordial observations provided the context. From the surface to the clouds at the top, and beyond them to the stars over to the universe, the eyes are looking from the below. The definitions did not reduce the charm of the words, on the contrary, they provided the beauty of the clarity. The gravitational field is the weakest among all four known fundamental forces of the universe, as the strong interactions between the quarks, as the weak interactions by the bosons, the force-carriers, as the electromagnetic forces within the atoms; they are all far greater in their effect than the force of the gravity. In this frame, it has no significance in the subatomic scale, yet it is the driving force forming the field giving the curvature shape making all the macroscale materials follow the routes over geodesic lines. The poetry of the explanation outpaces the identity of the beauty in the words, and the raw observations become obsolete.

Yet it is faster to say, the sun has risen, the clouds have covered the skies, they have become grey, then has fallen the rain.


The key was already there, the lock it opened was already defined, the door you opened showed already what you feared to tell. The arcade-absurdities of the code are now beheld upon you, with all their ugliness smirking at you, the delirium of the moves drives the mind into insanity never to recover and forever cursing you.

When the simulation aspects of the code lose their enchantment to further construct the illusion, the design of it remains naked on the screen. The warfare is the name, and the player shall chase the code-units everywhere.

That is the reason you spitefully accused the code for not being a simulation, even though it has all the beauty in its lines to create the reality. It has the potential, despite the dreaded dependency on the random- or predetermined-scripted-events, it is capable to proceed more or less. But the attempts to explain and accept and move on shatter under the heavy blows of the convoluted definitions, whereas it leaves behind the amorphous shape of a game.

The player clicks, and the command is forwarded, and the army units move.

The code computes, and the command is forwarded, and the army units move.

Or the navy units.

It does not matter. None would be possible. None of it is plausible. None is real.

One army unit is forwarded from one vertex to another.

One army unit is lead by a general from southern France to northern India. On the land they travel, by the foot they march, with the swords and the muskets and the cannons they fight.

That manoeuvre is impossible.


The distance certainly hyper-increases the unreality of the situation. The impossibility. The implausibility. The never-to-be-happened, the forever-to-be-non-real, the ever-to-be-fantasy. When it is surreal, the limits of the language are also breached. No word can survive the onslaught of the hysteria once it defeats the reality.

No, the dragons, the full-plate armours, the pyromancy of the mages, the divine spells of the priests of the Forgotten Realms, they are closer to their own reality than this situation, the key you held to open the door to the arcade-absurdities of this code you are facing now.

There has never been such a manoeuvre in the history, and that is because of the laws of nature, however explained in the disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology, anthropology, geology, cosmology, mathematics, none can save it to bring a simplification, nor an abstraction, not even an assumption.

There has been no army, no population, no human being to manage such manoeuvres.


The supply system comes to aid, with all the misery it carries, one cannot hold the tears and cries upon the pitiful mechanics of it. Crying, yes, tears now falling upon the words, the sorrow is immense, as if the supply system is there, some concept of food-crates maybe lying upon the fields to be collected over the course of the marching armies.

The map. Then comes the map, unsheathing its dagger, stabbing in the back of the hopes that are the dreams for the simulation of reality. The map, and you are looking at it from the skies. The map, and the code is calculating the shortest distance between possible vertices. Both the player and the code, betraying the pillars of the reality. The map. Without it, no human being, let alone thousands, can march from one place to another, with an obscure intention of conquering the enemies.

That intention is called mobilisation in the current times. Consolidation of power is another aspect to define the phenomena. The ideology came very late, so that is an anachronism for the time period of the history the code tries to simulate, yet applicable for the contemporary studies. But no, none of them exist in the code, as there is none but only weak essences of such mechanisms.

There has never been such a manoeuvre in the history, for it was impossible without the maps, without the intention, without the core necessities of the humans provided.

The supply system can be assumed with eyes wide open as a gross assumption for the basic requirements the humans have to be provided.

The intention is non-existent in the code as it is dead-locked on fighting, devouring, destroying every other tag. There is no system of mobilisation, and every command of every leader is obeyed by not even blind-followers, but by bits of graphics, through the lines of the code.

The map. The betrayal is immense. No manoeuvre as such in history, because of the simple fact: No one would know the place of the destination. None.

---

And then comes the counter-attack of examples. Oh yes, there had been such. Truly, the most naïve you are.

*​

Yes, the armies of the Emperor Muwatalli the Second of the Hittite Empire clashed with the armies of the Pharaoh Ramesses the Second of the Kingdom of Egypt in approximately thirteenth century before the common era on the banks of Orontes near Kadesh. For those two civilisations from Anatolia and Egypt, that distance to the battlefield was immense, yet the pitched-battle was decided by the so-called noble and divine leaders of those populations they ruled, bringing the doom upon those populations again. The battle was so severe that both belligerents claimed their own victory, continued to write their own story for the history. But that is not even applicable to the case of arcade-absurdities this game is cursed by. However, even in this semi-related example, the nobility, or the monarchs, or the rulers, the virus of the humanity, found their way to rule thousands, deciding to clash with each other. Why, the weaker tool to find the answers, is also applicable for this fundamental problem. Why human beings do follow the leaders, is a valid question to research in that matter. How, in this case, is deduced from the records of those days. Yet, none is applicable for the code. All tags of the code, and the tag of the player, assume absolute control. Very weak depiction of rebellions is available, yet there is no power that is distributed among the many. Essence of estates is there, yet their vague mechanics are only to be clicked on. There are only singular identities, and even they are ambiguous in their existence within the code.

*​

Yes, the famous example. Alexander conquered the known world. By himself, apparently, when such insane attributes are given to such miserable concepts as warfare. It is the result of romanticism, to see a young human-being leading others as if only to explore beyond their myths. In reality one individual with the power amassed by another group of individuals managed to persuade thousands to march into another realm to invade, to massacre, to conquer, along their way. And yes, in the case of the Kingdom of Macedons, they travelled great distances in their invasion. The supply needed was provided through their conquests, therefore essentially forcefully taking the output of other populations to proceed. This is not available in the code, the game does not have such a system, but a shell of a name, that is called the supply system, therefore the spain-tag can reinforce from the manpower provided in Iberia even when its troops are on the islands of Japan.

*​

Yes, there is the other famous example. When the armies of Timur of the Barlas entered the lands of Anatolia, Bayezid of the sons of Osman, the Lightning, was actually besieging the Constantinople of the Roman Empire during the days of the year 1402. Timur was a cunning leader, with extraordinary diplomatic finesse, he calculated that the sons of Osman were no longer supported by the Khanate of the Golden Horde, nor by the Mamluks of the Egypt. He gathered his entire army, from Persia, from Mesopotamia, from India, then he made his move. Bayezid the Lightning was a hot-headed ruler, an incredible rider, but unable to see the changing circumstances around himself. Yet he would never give up his self-proclaimed right to rule, nor would Timur. Unfortunately for the former, Timur was a more capable commander. He led his army from one water-source to another in Anatolia until the summer, while the armies of Bayezid the Lightning chased him down, effectively exhausted by the time they were confronted on the plains of Ankara. In fact, Timur was leading his army in the footsteps of the armies of Bayezid, unknown to him. In the end, Bayezid was taken as captive, brought to the court of Timur in Persia, and the realm of sons of Osman collapsed into interregnum. The four sons of Bayezid would fight to the end with each other, along with occasional alliances with the Roman Empire; after eleven years, Mehmed the first would succeed in defeating and killing all three of his brothers Isa, Musa, and Süleyman. And yes, that is a classic example of such land based-manoeuvres, yet what happens in the code is far from this reality. The manoeuvring-battle between Timur and Bayezid was exclusively fought on the lands of Anatolia. Granted, it is a relatively large piece of landmass on the Earth, but it is not comparable to the size of continents. Under no circumstances can armies travel around entire Asia, nor Africa, not from Patagonia to Mesoamerica and back again to the southern tip of America, and this is only a regular war-course for this game.

From the simple fact that lack of maps; however they are numerous and available and known, can never be complete for a field commander, and the warfare in this case is not fought by the army corps of the contemporary times with field radars, global positioning systems, satellite images, and what other possibilities there can be. No, by the simple fact of the fear for going into an unknown territory, no leader should, would, could command such a population into such madness. Only when the terrain is known, the territory is open, the surroundings are explored by the spies, the scouts, the local guides, such warfare will bring the victory, naturally. These specific counter-examples are not enough to redeem this situation of the code, for there is no such need when moving the armies around the map for this code, nor for the player. The map is ever existent, provided the fog of the map is dispersed through discovery.

*​

And yes, there is the example. The, is there for the particular meaning, as there is only one example in the history for such a warfare manoeuvre of armies.

Yes, that one.

Chinggis Khan Temujin of the Borjigins, after unifying the various tribes from Mongolia to Manchuria, from Mongolia to Central Asia, neighboured the Empire of the Khwarazm. He sent a delegation of merchants for amicable relations, but one of the Sultan Ala ad-din Muhammad the second’s governors, Inalchuq, refused to comply. The merchants were slain by him in Otrar. The Sultan approved, and retreated to his heavily fortified cities. Nomadic barbarians of the steppes could not conquer such a powerful empire, which brought down the Seljuk Empire, he thought.

Whether it was actually planned by him or not, this was used as the basis to mobilise the tümens by Chinggis Khan. It was the year of the Tiger, and the Mongols descended upon Khwarazm. By 1220 of the Julian calendar, in the year of the Rabbit, the great cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Khorasan perished, a vile destruction that was never seen before. In the aftermath, Otrar was no more than ruins to be abandoned. The misery, the bloodshed, the horror brought by the Mongols shook the Empire of the Khwarazm into its collapse, and the world that was known changed entirely.

The Kuman-Kipchak tribes were roaming from the north of the Central Asia to the inner Pontic Steppes down to south Hungary, and they were resisting the Mongols. Two of the generals in Chinggis Khan’s tümens, while looting the Khwarazm heartlands from Nishapur to Azerbaijan during the winter of 1219, devised a plan. A plan of expedition. As if it is a casual check-around-the-surroundings. Before the answer of Chinggis Khan came, the two generals led two tümens to plunder Kingdom of Georgia and explore the ways through Caucasus. They rode around the entire Caspian Sea to the south, entered the realm of Georgia, defeated the forces of King Lasha Giorgi the fourth of the Bagrationi, which resulted in the Kingdom of Georgia failing to provide support for the Fifth Crusade.

The answer of Chinggis Khan came afterwards, ordering the two generals to proceed. The tümens passed through the Caucasus Mountains, but with heavy losses due to winter; they would always go for campaign in winter, and that time was not an exception. They sacked the surrounding cities, including Astrakhan. Even the Venetians entered an alliance with the tümens of the two generals, then urged them to target other trade cities, thus the Mongols sacked the Genoese possessions in Crimea. Koten Khan of the Kuman-Kipchaks fled after the initial battles; Kiev principality heard the news; Kuman-Rus alliance was formed, and they gathered an army to face the two Mongol tümens.

The belligerents confronted each other over the Kalka River.

After the feigned retreats and heavy volleys of horse-archers, but together with heavy cavalry charges, while using smoke-producing grenades for diversion, and owing to the help of the river-crossing, the allied forces of the Kuman-Kipchaks and Rus were defeated. The Mongol tümens proceeded to cross the Volga river, into Volga Bulgaria, then back to north around Ural Mountains, fought until there were no more resistance.

The two generals, Jebe Noyan and Sübe'etai Noyan, then returned to east back to the ordo of Chinggis Khan, in 1223, during the year of the Horse.

*​

Yes, that is the example that can be used, but it is a singular sample, and there has not been any other such warfare in the period of the history the game simulates. The code does not have the details of what a supply system is, what a reconnaissance is, what the map is, what mobility of forces is. These specific examples incorporate the political situation of their entities, otherwise the skills of their generals, else the ferocity of the rulers for claiming supremacy over another. It was therefore a significant point in the Hundred Years’ War when the castle of Caen fell against the forces of Edward the third in 1346, later culminating in the Battle of Crecy and the capture of Calais. It was therefore a devastating shock when Lajos the second of the Kingdom of Hungary was killed in the Battle of Mohacs in 1526 after they were defeated by the sons of Osman. It was therefore an important event when the port of Den Briel was captured by William van der Marck with his captains, increasing the momentum of the rebellion of the Low Countries against the Habsburgs. None is available in the code, as it is limited in its depiction as a simulation of history.

---

None is available, and none is doable, and none can be expected from the code of this game, as the design of the simulation is only warfare in the style of an arcade, and it 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.

What there is that the mighty city of Ulm sending her 10k-stack from Bavaria to Indonesia for glorious victories. By foot. On land. Over entire Asia.



…and in all such problems you lost yourself, and the main one as the key you defined; all can be at one instance or another, accepted. Assumptions, simplifications, abstractions. All are fine, after all the delirium of analysing, identifying, defining them.

…but why. Why?

Why would you play this game, after all the heavy losses a questioning mind suffers, at the side of the answers, you realise only the reason for asking the question. You could not even reach the actual answer of the question.

…and the key unlocking the door holding the truth behind the code, as it loses its reality, then comes the real of you in front of your eyes.

The bleeding wound indicates a dire situation in the survival, but –

System Warning – Medic-System is compromised
Run auxiliary batches
System Warning – Runtime error – Repair batches are invalidated

But you do know the answer, do you not? Do you not see the answer, as it is simple, while obvious, yet the reality you are in is holding all the aspects of ugliness, but –

System Warning – Alert – Breach on the mainframe is detected

Your eyes are blinking from the real to the dream.

System Warning

No. The dream continues, even if the code is insufficient, yet the answer ever escaped you. You needed to re-examine, and there it is.

But you do know the answer. Out of the mess of the beauty of the code this game has, yes, the beauty, with all its hideous sides, out of it you search for it, and –

System Warning – System Warning – System Warning



Click.

---

CHAPTER XV - Part I​

Hello ottos.


Yes, the event has arrived. The last hope, and it will not be pretty, you do know deep behind your hopes.

Tick.

But whether it could, else never, you proceeded with the run, as the tag was chosen even for that, a relaxed procedure, a serene course, a soothing wind, playing the ottos is. Yet, you hoped for it.

Tock.

Spoiler: The Prelude

[*]​

As the provinces up to the gulf were conquered, another trade company can be established: Mashriqi company, and the game still has the double-naming error. Both the Basra and the Persia nodes produce the trade company with the same name. Together with the otto-tag having a starting-ruler as king, these were the initial indicators that some lines of the code went seriously wrong when the emperor expansion first came around. How many such additions drenched in complete errors there had been, you lost the count. The one you play, it must be a couple patch-fixes after the emperor. Then it was enough, after all those years, your patience was exhausted; leviathan had never a chance in your eyes.

Still, with the expansion of this run, you are able to get a couple of good moments, especially with the trade company mechanics. Name-localisation errors, even though they indicated greater ones in the code, once the critical ones were cleared out; well, name-errors can be disregarded. Whatever.

Back to the trade companies of the player-ottos; Mashriqi Company of Mesopotamia-Iraq serves well for the purposes of increased trade. Now with five merchants, greater portion of the world trade from asia-continent through india- and china-subcontinents flow and the control is in the choke point of the city, belonging to the player-ottos.

When the trade nodes are compared, yes, with the 48,1 ducats of total value, by 1555 the node of the city is the richest among the other candidates. The choke-point of Sevilla and the end-node of the Channel, they are far behind. Though situation may change in 45 years, as Sevilla node shows 41,8 ducats. Therefore keep the otto-specific mission leg of Crimea node until that time, which will give additional trade power at the node.

But of course, if the run survives until that time, the year of the Global Trade institution, 1600. It does not seem so.

It does not, as the ticking gains its momentum under the tension of the event.

Government reform tier 6 is reached, L’etat c’est moi, 250 more governing capacity. The code cannot recover after this power of the player-ottos. Yet, still letting the austria-hungary-tag continue to live; otherwise the perma-claims on the Hungarian Plains were already there, waiting to be enacted in the mission leg, but no. No, there is no need; the scraps of the hope are for the austria-hungary to be an eligible rival, but due to the event.

​

Of course with the leader bohemia-tag as emperor, opens the event. Among the other tags, burgundy and aragon join the catholic-side. Danzig, one of the new electors, joins right away. Nassau, livonian order, bologna – catholics do not have that much power by 1556.

Time is ticking.

The event informed the formation of the Schmalkalden League, but thuringia-tag does not seem to bother at all. Probably this time it is actually the Salzburg League, as that is the only elector-tag converted from catholics; when no electors are converted, then the league will not happen at all. Even if it forms, they may never initiate the offensive. Yes, the code still has it by the emperor-addition: A gigantic france-tag can join the protestant-side, while taking the mantle of Defender of the Faith, for the catholic-side. Oh yes, crazy-fun.

This time though, even if the salzburg-tag is of lutheran denomination, it cannot lead the league due to its small size, which is calculated through a military-rank equation among the league participants. Brunswick-tag apparently is the leader, owing to its size. The usual bunch have already joined the protestant-side: Tags from dithmarschen to stettin, augsburg to memmingen, würzburg to regensburg and paderborn, but of course, the mighty ulm-tag is there too. Sigh. Its might comes not from its advantages, as there is none, but from a comedy-sketch by John Cleese, in case not known by now, after years of meme-runs produced about it. A one-province-minor, with generic missions, a run equivalent to ryukyu. Or mzab. Whatever.

As the religious differences are in the background, the rivalries play the major role for the code to decide. Unfortunately, it is not always sufficient. And for this run, the fail-scenario is in effect. The emperor is the bohemia-tag. Therefore the poland-lithuania has joined the… protestant-side. Eh.

Then comes the england-tag, still lingering around the isles. On protestant-side. Cool, but freezing that is, as the insignificance of it is insurmountable, since it can with almost nought-chance ever provide any credible help on the mainland belligerents.

Days are ticking.

Increase the galleys from 30 to 40. Mediterranean is a dangerous place, never to be underestimated. Suddenly the combined forces of Iberia can gang-upon with hundreds of ships, so be vigilant.

It is the end of 1556, and the france-tag is now an eligible rival for the player-ottos. The strategy of not-embracing the institute seems to work. Unfortunately, even this rivalry does not trigger the france-tag to join on any sides, but as the player you have not made a decision yet.

But the problem is there, predicted long ago, as eons have passed it feels now. The emperor is not austria-hungary-tag, thus there is only a rivalry between them but under the waters silent it flows. The austria-hungary does not make a choice, it does not join any side, thus the france-tag will not.

The code has fallen.

Your hopes are gone.


Then what has remained? What could possibly make the run proceed? None. No amount of help can save the code from its demise.

Only… waiting. Even if it has failed this time, it is still running, and you will get the most out of it, as the hopes disintegrate, there is only the slight joy that can be squeezed out of this mess. It is not the satisfactory challenge, not even a bit, and you certainly do not have any patience against the ludicrous choices or the incomprehensible events of the code, and it falls miserably, therefore you will accelerate this, to bring the code to its destination in its fall.

Army tradition, about 96; check. Army professionalism, 100; check. Recruit more troops, now 124k; check. The current ruler, 12-monarch selim the second, still young, and the heir event is prompted, giving a 13-monarch, named… murad; whatever, check.

Catholic-side is joined by the-knights-tag, then come the castile and the goslar-tags. Protestant-side is joined by the passau-, the wolgast-, the lübeck-, the bremen-, and the hamburg-tags. All minor powers, most are irrelevant for the run by now. Oh yes, the return of the-knights-of-the-rhodes, but now of-the-malta, as that tag can re-emerge on the island, provided the tag owning the province chooses so; obviously the aragon-tag allowed it. Nevertheless, no france-tag, no-austria-tag; the castile-tag is too weak, no thanks to the player-ottos, and the aragon-tag is not to be mentioned; the england-tag has been by default a running-joke; the portugal-tag, how that is still alive, who knows, but it refrains. Oh, the austria-hungary tag becomes an eligible rival for the player-ottos, again.

All right, code.


Hello protestant-side, here comes the player-ottos.

The flow of time,
silent it becomes,
thundering in the mind.​

Spoiler: Thundering

[**]

Yes, the muscovy-tag joins on the catholic-side. It is followed by the riga, then the sweden-tag. Unfortunately the newest rivalries of the france or the austria-hungary for the player-ottos are unsuccessful in pushing them to enter the league of the catholic-side, or any side. In the last minute, ally of the emperor-bohemia joins, as the brandenburg-tag. To counter the sweden-tag, the denmark-tag comes to the protestant-side, and the thuringia-tag, and... that is it. Disappointment. When the run fails, then go with a bang.

Yeah yeah, mamluks is no longer a valid rival, whatever. Suddenly the young 12-monarch dies after ruling for only 4 years, and the player-ottos is now in regency. Yes, the code cannot make any efficient strategies, but it will fight the human-player through events. All right code, as you wish.

The march-bosnia sends the proposal; now the Printing Press is spreading around the capital provinces. It does not matter. The otto-tag is coming for you, code.

Jafari scholars, +10% shock damage. Diplo-tech level 14, now the galleass type galleys have arrived. Quickly upgrade the navy. Economy shows 53 ducats in net by the hyper-boost of trade, even after the increased army force. You never had a chance, code.

Ming-tag has announced the player-ottos as rivals. And ming, please do explain, why would the player-ottos care about you? Can you embargo the tag and efficiently kill the economy of the player-ottos? Can you attack the player-ottos? Do you even have any province of interest for the ottos-tag? No, but it can only provide ally-block, so making crazy alliances with the colonisers, but Council of Trent! It can reach the player-ottos, after all there is no map, there are only military accesses and supply system does not affect the code-tags, as an advantage. But can you beat the player-ottos while being two-techs behind, ming? The code does not have any notion of strategy, but only enormous advantages; still, it has infinite amount of patience, that is remarkable, and of course, natural, as that is not a part of the simulation.

Order 10 more galleasses; the navy is going to be 50-galleys strong. Also, check the Create a Grand Navy generic mission, giving additional navy morale, just in case.

Rising among the Greek population event, -2 unrest, increased production efficiency, for some of the provinces. Nice, yet only another random-event.


Months are ticking.

Pity, as the months are ticking, it would be nice to resume the discussion about the ideas. The Return of the Ideas? Naah, the Revenge of the Ideas? Eh, no. The remaining side of the ideas to discuss would be the concept of policies, which are not that much. Base strategy generally seems to be Eco-Quality and another +5% discipline for the armies. Inno-Off for siege-pip generals, if the Aristo-set is not chosen or not available; crucial for merchant republics, which have Plutocratic-set. Pluto-set, the best non-military set of the military ideas. It is only for fun, yet very beneficial for the economy, and good for army morale. Oh, no policies of Admin-set are relevant, so once again, never Admin-set. A couple more by Influence-Humanist, very good as providing +1 diplo-slot. Do not overlook Expansion-Aristo, giving reduced building-costs, very useful for the portugal-tag. Any tag to oppose the england-great britain requires the Maritime and its turbo-policies for incredible navy morale bonus and such. And the list goes on. They cost monarch points when enacted more than one, with some of the tags being able to have more free policies, but for turbo-tags or dynamic-tags as the player after about the mid-run, +5-advisers are affordable, then there will be no concern on the monarch points.

At the moment, as the music intensifies, your idea sets are looking at you, while you are looking back at the ideas tab. Diplo-set; check. Aristo-set; check. Inno-set; pour the admin-points. If the run were to be sustained, then the fourth would be Maritime. Of course, for the high navy tradition and large navy limit together. Then perhaps Eco-set? Probably for the sixth finally an actual mil-set, yeah, the Offensive, to improve the general-leader pips. Otherwise Defensive. Off- or Def-set, but then seventh and eighth ideas… what does remain? Oh right, Humanist or Religious, one is mandatory. For the last, whatever, even Naval would suit. Quality would be a better one though. But heey, that is a rich optimism, getting the run up to that date to choose fifth or sixth, let alone the last two. Nope, it is 1562, the run has saturated, the code has fallen, and the fourth set has not even arrived yet. Not even embraced the Printing Press. The hopes are gone. Then remains only the warfare.

Why would the player-ottos embrace the institution, while still ahead of the tech, even with enormous tech-cost penalties? One more institution, then the result is obvious, no valid targets for rivalry. Therefo –






[*] Mountains; [**] No Time for Caution; both from the soundtrack of Interstellar by Hans Zimmer (2014)

Edit 22.10.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical, typographical, lexical mistakes.

 

[filcat]

---

CHAPTER XV - Part II


...but then suddenly starts,
ceases the silence in the music,
of the words primal they are.
​

Spoiler: Choose your destiny - Flawless victory

[*]

RELIGIOUS
KOMBAT!
​

[*] Techno Syndrome, hard trance techno remix of Techno Syndrome (Mortal Kombat) of the soundtrack for the game (Mortal Kombat, Midway, 1992), unknown origin; soundtrack by The Immortals, written by Olivier Adams (1994)

 

[filcat]

---

CHAPTER XV - Part III


And the instincts follow,
into the melody they conform,
impossible to avoid the colour of the twilight
​

Spoiler: The Twilight

[*]

WHOOOW!
​

[*] Twilight Zone (rap version) of the album Get Ready! by 2 Unlimited (1992)
This is the original that Oliver Adams of The Immortals made the remix Techno Syndrome; though the similarity was claimed as a coincidence.

Edit: Corrected typographical mistake.

 

[filcat]

---

CHAPTER XV - Part IV


As the melody envelops the calm,
Terrified the light in the never,
For what is seen out of the existence,
Ever shining in the screams forever.
​

Spoiler: FINISH IT!

[*]


​

[*] Metal cover for Techno Syndrome, by LittleVMills (2019)

 

[filcat]

EPILOGUE​

Hello ottos.


Yes, that was the conclusion to the conflict, in the event announced, for the years waited, in the minutes played.

---

The War of the League ends, in the victory for the side the player-ottos decides. On the other hand, that is not exactly a guaranteed result; the cases can be broken down to two scenarios at first. The strong-league is the one with enormous number of participants for the sides. A general observation can be claimed that the catholic-side is the usual winner in such situations. For that type of religious league war, the human-player can be irrelevant, and occasionally even be bested by the code, if the chosen side is opposing the crowded-league. This happens due to the coloniser-participants.

In rare occurrences, when the ottos join, while a strong-mamluks-tag are still running, the latter can join the war, with two possibilities: Either enforce a peace, therefore auto-catholic-side, as the war is declared by the protestant-side; or by the uneven distribution of great powers between the belligerent-sides. Yes, any great power can join any other war that is fought between great powers but uneven in the numbers. Attacking the france-tag as the austria with an ally-england, provided that they are all great powers during the war, so 1 great power attacked by 2, can incur a surprise party to defend the attacked great power of the france. In that example, the tag as the fourth great power is an unpredictable chance of the pseudo-random number generator. Rivals of the attacker party austria- and england-tags will certainly have an increased weight to join the fight. However, there can be truly random participants among the great powers, with the reasons only known to the calculation of the code. As such, a relatively healthy mamluks-tag can join the league war, based on its rivalries during the conflict. A player-ming, or any other tag under the control of the human-player that has become a great power, can rush to discover the map over the europa-subcontinent, and can manage to join either side based on the availability of the options. Such a forced-attempt will not be pretty, and requires strenuous power of the patience from the human-player. In any case, all these can wildly change the outcome of the War of the League of the strong-type.

The other scenario is the weak-league. Average and below number of participants for the sides of the conflict will be observed. This generally occurs as the austria-tag loses the imperial election. The chain reaction of fallen rivalries, or the opposite effect of dead-locked rivalries prevent the code-tags to join any side. The austria-tag is not central in this role; occasionally the Burgundian Inheritance happens in the favour of the emperor, causing a horrific austria to annihilate the france-tag early in the run; or a france-tag going berserk on both the castile-spain and the england, then casually sides with the protesant-league, then takes the decision to be the defender of the catholic-faith. In the last example, despite the code-protestant-tags gain an enormous advantage in the form of the france, they become silent when it comes to declare the league war, as again the france-tag will be calculated on the defender side of the conflict. Yes, that is still the case, with the expansion of the emperor, and who knows what has changed in the iteration that came afterwards, named the leviathan.

Otherwise, in the scenario of the weak-league, as there are not enough belligerents, the war is declared as a regular procedure, and it runs its usual course.

*​

In this run, the player is the ottos. The code never had a chance. Choosing the side of the protestants was not a decision of need, nor of wanting, else never been a concern. Only hope was to draw the attention of the austria-hungary, but it refrained. The muscovy-tag was lingering around, the emperor-bohemia tag was silent, the england-tag was ineffective, the denmark-tag was not seen at all; the france-tag did not bother. The tags of the holy roman empire, even if there is a turbo-strasbourg, a hyper-successful trent-tag, and a well-doing liege-tag, they did not join. Besides, since they seem to be running larger than their usual scenarios, it means they devoured other tags of the empire or their neighbourhoods. So in any case there were not many tags left to get into the conflict.

Out of the empire, there is the mega-milan, which has not made any moves since decades, let alone participating the league. There is the papal-tag of this run, alive, healthy, powerful, and it does not say a word on the situation of the war, as that tag does not join the league-business at all for most of the times, and only does so when it allies the emperor-tag during the conflict.

Then comes the situation of the coloniser iberian-tags. The portugal-tag was beaten down by the player-ottos, so its dormant status is understandable. But the castile-tag joined, yet it did nothing. It has 73k troops, yet kept them somewhere either on indonesian-islands or in mesoamericas, even if its entire realm was ravaged under siege, even if it could change the course of the war a bit, even if its potential power would be a deciding factor for most of the others, even when this was curtailed by its own choices already. None shows up, and the silence is evermore.

*​

And the conclusion of the War of the League. The date shows 1566, the protestant-side has won, while ultimately losing. No realm remains as a powerful protestant-tag, in any case there has not been any before the war. Based on the incredible chances of the calculation, the first emperor to be elected is… the landshut-tag. Not the leader of the league, not even joined; the randomness of the situation is acceptable, yet its election is still incomprehensible. Probably the decision of the code depends on the relations with the pre-war electors, but that is only a claim. The amount of time spent looking at the lines of the code drives the one insane, eradicating all the patience one can have, and thus it is more than enough to say, that it is a random choice of the code. After the war, the new emperor-landshut will have many problems, as all neighbours will bite pieces off the empire, and it cannot prevent it, not with its semi-generic agendas. Even though the bavarian-tags have more specific missions than many others, none is sufficient to make the code run those tags in any efficient manner. The game is not designed for them; it is either austria, or spain, or poland, or england, or france, or ming, or… Eh.

And the other tags of the protestant-side? Poland now has a pu over lithuania with 100% liberty desire. It already lost in the victory. The denmark-tag was on the winning side of the war, and it will be devoured by either the sweden-tag or the lübeck-tag. Cool that would be, an interesting scenario but there is no patience to wait and see what happens, since you do know how it proceeds even with such scenarios. They fight each other, one prevails, then it remains silent as there are no more rivals in the vicinity. Or they will rival the ottos, the one that the human-player controls, and they will wait from the other side of the europa-subcontinent, regularly Slander Merchants, or Sow Discontent, and nothing else will they ever do. Except conquest. Just as any generic code-agenda.

*​

And the side that lost the war? The castile was on the lost-side of the league, but it still has its 73k-army somewhere on the earth. It will not be attacked by the france-tag, nor it will attack back; they will continue in their path of conquest but on others owing to their bonkers-level-crazy perma-claims in all over the world. Although, as the human-player, you managed to force it to give up some of those claims on the philippines-islands, but such tags have more of those than any other in the game. They will not stop in that regard, nor they should be.

But when they fight the human-player, they will still besiege the farthest fort, the most distant province, the least valuable area for the war-goal, while waiting to be conquered, keeping their 100k troops hidden somewhere else, otherwise running around to avoid any battles. Understandable, to struggle for avoiding any loss. The problematic side is that the chase occurs on a war-theatre roughly covering an entire continent. Roughly, is not there for indicating an exaggeration; it is there to show the average experience, since it is well possible to watch the code run from other code-tags or from the human-player over not single, but multiple continents. Such wars are not fought against a greater threat, nor against a weaker realm, not even against time, nor for any gain. They are fought against the patience of the human-player.

---

The date shows 1568, and the poland-tag converts to reformed-faith. While having a pu over lithuania-tag with 100% liberty desire. Brilliant move, code. On the other hand, an interesting story, seeing the demise of a realm. What could lie in its future, a war for independence, further defensive wars against its neighbour the bohemia-tag, or an attack on the muscovy-tag? Who knows, you do not need to care any more.

But yes, the story. That is all what remains, and the only possibility to play the game. Unfortunately the game makes every possible move to hinder itself for such stories to happen, as it still calculates that the poland-tag too powerful for the lithuania-tag to declare independence. This is also the reason for the colonies rarely declaring war against their overlord-tags. There can be a two-province-left portugal-tag, and the code-colonies over entire america-continents will wait for decades to make a move. Then, they can with very high probability still lose their independence wars. The code will always require the human-player to disrupt this design that has the heavy inertia.

Oh yes, it is 1568, and the player-ottos still has not embraced the Printing Press institution. Why, as already 13 years ahead of time in the diplo- and the mil-techs, while waiting for the admin-tech to drop under the condition of behind-the-time, in addition to behind-the-neighbours' tech, providing another 5% tech-cost. Moreover, another method to reduce the tech-costs is… the spy network on the technologically advanced tags. Yes, why do you think that Diplo-set is so important? To increase relations so the coalitions can be avoided, to have vassals instead of crazy-code-allies, again to increase relations of the enemies of the allies so the player will not be called to surprise-and-irrelevant-wars of the allies, and of course for spy networks, which give tech-cost reductions. And after all these advantages, why would anyone choose Admin-set for an opener instead of the Diplo-set? Who knows, maybe such runs also involve a story. Now that would be interesting, otherwise, never the Admin-set.

And your choice for the fourth set will be of course Maritime, and it will be unlocked once the admin-tech 14 arrives. Checking the neighbourhood. Casually declare war on the mamluks-tag. War ends around 1570, and the provinces along the Red Sea coast and the Persian Gulf coast are conquered. Leave the city of Qahira again. It does not matter at this point. In any regard, you have not touched the perma-claims on the hungary-tag since decades, in case the austria-hungary tag could rise. But now, it is pointless, as the hopes are gone.

Embrace the Printing Press by 1570 after the war, and get the admin-tech 14. Maritime-set. After that; even, yes even the Admin-set can be chosen as fifth, since none matters any more. The safe, the sane, the reasonable route would be to take the Humanist-set as the fifth, then either the Trade- or the Off-set as the sixth; therefore the choice of the sixth determines the seventh. For the last one, by then the code would be screaming, yet one can pull out the Quality, or the Eco-set, even maybe the Naval, because well beyond the over-killing limit the run is, at tech-level 29, so no idea set would matter in any significant way for any turbo-tag, let alone the otto-tag.

Despite the heavy conquest, yes, as the admin-tech costs about only 371 admin-points, about 60% reduction the player-ottos has by then: With the innovativeness at 66,6, meaning 6,6% reduction on all monarch-point actions; with the occasional Dhimmi estate when they have high loyalty and influence; with the Inno-set; added to 2% reduction on the according category each time an idea is enabled; not to mention 10% reductions by Diplo- and Aristo-sets; but ultimately owing to the turbo-monarchs, technology can be kept always ahead of time. Always keep the tech ahead of time, particularly useful for economy by the admin- and the diplo-techs, and there is never a need to unlock a tech while ahead of time if it does not provide innovativeness by being the first. The exception is the mil-tech; a sudden change in the political parameters can force one to unlock the next tech-level. Political situation is a generous label, naturally, as it is only the warfare. Just as the austria-hungary war you endured by your own mistake, it only depends on the warfare status.


Current ruler is murad the first, a 13-monarch, 5-3-5, ascended the throne during the league war, following the regency due to his predecessor dying only after four years into his reign; funny, as it should have been named as murad the third, but that is a small detail as an error by the history-files, and it does not matter after all the delirium the code vomits on the player.

Austria is no more a valid target for the ottos. How many times it has been on and off by now, you do not know.

Oh, your only ally, the oman-tag, calls you to its war on the yemen-tag. You apparently have missed to increase the relations with the yemen-tag up to 50, and have forgotten to manually set the Attitude towards the tag as Friendly. Now as the player you have to suffer the war that is declared by the code as an ally. The war lingers about three years, despite your attempts to finish it quicker. Fortunately your ally the oman-tag conquers not that many provinces; but this is enough, the vassalisation cannot wait any more. There is still too much distance preventing its vassalisation, and there are only a couple of provinces between the two of you.

Declare war on the hormuz-tag, by 1573, and make the war as fast as possible. By 1 January 1574, the provinces on the gulf-coast are conquered, now the player-ottos is neighbouring the oman-tag. Hello oman, the newest and the last vassal. Make her a march, send the officers, take any debts off.

Now having seven vassals, and in the month of February, the muscovy-tag is no more a valid target; within the end of the same month, it will be again eligible for rivalry. The cycle for the muscovy-tag has started. The other two are the france- and the ming-tags. Once the hungarian provinces are conquered, in addition to a couple of provincial-purchases from the vijayanagar- and the sindh-tags for trade companies on the india-subcontinent, they will also enter their cyclic-rivalry status. Once; when this would be done.

But you have no more hope.

The charter-company purchases will turbo-increase the trade even more; by 1577, the trade node on the city is about 51,2 ducats of total value. It is closely followed by the Sevilla node with 48,6 ducats, its rate of increase is far greater than the player-ottos’ node; the Channel node seems to be failing, only at 41,6 ducats. However, with the trade directed from the india-subcontinent, and when the otto-specific mission on the Crimea node is enacted once the time is right, it is highly possible to spawn the Global Trade by having the richest node on one of the provinces around it.

Yet there is no more need.

The army shows 144k troops, and the net income is about 55 ducats. You can disband the entire army and re-recruit, since the manpower potential can meet the demand; you can mercenary-spam even with 20 consecutive debts, and the economy is at the level of self-recovery from that loss. No tag can oppose, so the coalitions remain as the only option, and that is an artificial method to trigger a challenge. Yet, the economy shows at least three coalitions can be managed, and that is an optimistic estimate, since the code can never manage to declare even a single Punitive War on the player under these circumstances. The human-player has to self-sabotage the run at this stage, which is a pointless exercise.

For you have no more patience.

It would have been interesting, yes. Had the possibilities within the distribution functions made it, had the random-events on the code aligned on a different angle, had the code used its predetermined-events more efficiently, were the dice rolled differently, it could be different. The name of your hope was if only it could be.



But now, the date shows 1578, and it ticks, the never-vector, ever-confusing scalar with single direction, the time, it runs, its sound clings, resonating in the depths of the mind.


The tags are silent.

The run reached the saturation level.

The code collapsed.




Goodbye, ottos.

---

Of course the sun rises as it should be. But the light is blocked while the clouds thicken as ever can be. And comes the rain, cleaning the pain away, but it is only blurring the vision, for it is the blissful serenity you are lost into.

It is the linguistic assumption due to the earth-bound perspective, and the obvious is assumed by the knowledge consistently observed by multiple independent sources through the time.


You do know the reason for why you are playing this game, as the blood hastens in its flow out of the wound. But the chase after the reason was intriguing, you admit to yourself, for it was not required to test it, yet it had to be determined, out of the complex mess in the simplest abyss you have been to.

System Warning – Back-up systems activated

The arcade-absurdities, for however horrendous they are, inherent to the design, unchangeable at this point, follow the path of the vile hatred in the frustration of yours. Identifying the most terrifying surreal aspect, the only that is, in the simulation it obliterates the reality, with a smooth touch of the gentle wind in the summer. As much incorporated into the lines of the loops within the conditionals by the equations the code runs through, the inescapable desperation hits with the awareness that how hard it is to distinguish over the others. You were not prepared, you did not know, you would not have an idea what it could bring once you have reached it.

Yes, it has been difficult to reach the conclusion, for all the elements of the code you accused fought back in their vigorous battle for existence.

System Warning – The Sentry is unresponsive

Yes, the simulation, however it is dominated by the events of the random and scripted types; it is the simulation that survives, because the events are there for the simulation to thrive, and not specifically for the human-player. The string functions coloured by the stylish graphical outputs are there for the story to enrich the imagination, yet the advantages and the disadvantages are there for the code, to disrupt its own equilibrium point. Obvious that is, as the code cannot calculate to defeat itself. Yet with its own lines, the equilibrium point of itself is unbalanced, and then it proceeds with another part of its own lines. Thus the illusion is formed, and the tags fight each other. For the player, though, that is the genesis of the challenge. The fight against the heavily advantageous code, or the survival against the incidents triggered by random or pulse-events.

System Warning – Routing available resources to Medic-System

Yes, even they can be accepted.

The code being a simulation; that is accepted by you, since it was the furious reaction of yours to accuse the code for being an arcade-game. Then the infinite-loop starts all over again. But lucid-streaming in the infinite-loops revealed the key. The army or navy units going to one province from another; the commands moving the units to one vertex from another. That is the knot, the key of the accusation, the code floats between the two worlds, being a simulation while growling as an arcade.

Yet it is not the hatred towards the design of the code you have. You do love the maps. You do love the choices you have to make. You do love the actions you have to take. You do love the music you hear. Mind-jumping is unavoidable under the impact of the music.

System Warning – Invalid commands

Yes, the music.

Spoiler: The Voyage

[*]​

The silence is announced by the deepest violins. A single percussion gongs the beginning. The cellos join, painting the history of this game together with her predecessors, as it all started with humble goals. The second of the title was the one remembered most, yet all of them had the same ambition: A grand strategy by their strong simulation elements. The flute enters, ushering in the new age, as the fourth iteration arrives. The harp supports all the tone, carrying the entire structure, showing that the fourth is the one to create the generational impact. They harmonise together, the drums roll, the brass makes its way, repeating the grandiose birth of the game. The woodwind takes over, telling the flow of the beauty, the direction of the art, the name of the game. Violins rise, cellos brood, yet they agree upon the lead, and the harmonisation repeats three times. At 2’27’’, it soars. The journey of the beauty, the way of the art, the name is roared as the percussion explodes, along the way the faint choir backs it. It truly is the voyage.

System Warning – Invalid commands

Yes, you do love the voyage you incessantly undertake in this game, a grand strategy, by her strong simulation elements.

But this game? Do you…? You…? You are not able to exit the infinite-loop, but enter another mind-jump.

---

You do know it, despite its incredible problems, unprecedented flaws, innumerable errors, not within the illusion, but beyond the disillusionment you see them, the pillars of the art, the essence of the code for this game rise in the mind, stand strong, defend its existence.

The casus belli. No code before this series of games, along with her cousins, managed to bring the concept into an acceptable form. The first step for the players to make an understandable interaction with the code. The curse of all games, being in the wetlands of warfare, designed for conquering other entities, yet this game along with her cousins made the revolution. The casus belli, so the player and the code can communicate with each other, beyond a careless, a mindless, a relentless onslaught against each other, provided the concept of generating the pretext for the warfare of each other in its run.

The truce, the length of war, the call for peace. All three changed the perception of the games for the players, as it has become possible to make any reasonable interaction with the code by these elements. With the truce concept, it became a definite period for what is going to happen after a war. The player is allowed to break it, yet the code is limited in its choice, to allow the player to resume the illusion of the interaction. Yes, otherwise additional reasoning has to be disclosed to the player in order to distinguish what the code may do: Does it behave as a sequential procedure to eliminate, or does it imitate a hesitating entity, are the questions answered with the truce time. Whether the code will be allowed to break by its own decision matrices or not in its design, the concept crushed the barriers of the games they are limited to. Instead of constant war-status, with the truce concept the players, both code and human, are expected to abide the treaty. The length of war; that is the defining factor for controlling the power of the code; the unlimited might of its infinite-patience, as no human can oppose it. Despite its flaws, it is the necessary aspect of the design; then comes the call for peace. Otherwise the code can resume forever against the human.

The numbers and their breakdown. With the fourth iteration it has reached its peak so far; without the listed numbers, the ledger information, the breakdown of the reasons, one cannot comprehend the actions of the code, otherwise there would be no illusion for an effective contact between the code and the human-player to start with, the simulation would not even exist. In the before times the old-school had to crawl through the never-disclosed commands of the game-codes, and they were all generic, aimed to eliminate the others. It is therefore an instinctive-habit of old-school players to consider that any code is determined to eliminate the opponent, the human. It was truly the dark ages of the simulations, however they were actually so or not. But with the numbers that are displayed in lists, showing the reasons of the choices made by the code; this changed every aspect of the games forever. In the times of this new-age, now the players can take further steps to comprehend the code in its actions, to consider their options against it, based on the observations they can make, as given by the design of the number-breakdowns.

And the last pillar, the most important, the core essence of the game. Pause.

Yes, the pause.

No, any objection against the concept of pause is baseless, untenable, and unthinkable. The usual counter-argument is that the life does not have a pause, as the time flow is continuous, so the simulation should be too, etc. No. In the case of the entropy increase, yes, the universe does not stop, and disregarding the singularities as black holes for the sake of the argument. The carbon-based life as a simplified definition, and narrowed down to the life of a human-being, the biological clock is always ticking too. There is no pause in either case, yes, but the metabolisms take their break. In fact, the life of the human being, an organism of carbon-based cycle, strives for the moments of rest, and that is not a behaviour exclusive to homo sapiens. You do take your time to rest and to control your own life, and it is the pause you can ever approach. So the baseless counter-argument can be overcome only by such basic defence, yet return to the case of the game.

The pause feature of the pseudo-real time flow in this game is the element that makes it unique, it is what makes this game and her cousins, the game. Turn-based strategies do not have such concerns; the insanity called real-time strategies do not have any remorse nor shame, as none is an actual strategy, but just highly sophisticated arcade-games of click-hysteria. Thus enter the realms of the Go and the Chess. They are the true strategies, and they are more than games, without any need of graphical nor string functions to enrich their outputs. They are the purest forms of the conceptual design of simulating the life and the strategy, even if being of turn-based nature.

But this game is none of them, as it has the pseudo-real time flow, with controllable flowspeed, and providing the function of a pause. This game cannot be itself, it cannot be anything, it will cease to exist when its pause feature is discarded. Take it out of the design, and this game will remain as dead as a generic reaction-tester, just as any -allegedly- strategy game with real-time flow. A test of human-reaction speed against the hundreds of the code-tags with its near-infinite processing speed it would become. Besides the futility of such a miserable design, it is, yes, doable to beat the speed of a processor, as millions are already trained themselves to do it, yet the amount of time spent on such games is a waste, as the opportunity is lost in that case, for what otherwise can be invested for a Basketball match, an infinitely superior type of game as opposed to -supposedly- strategy of the digital type with real-time flow.

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And yes, despite all its admirable beauty, remarkable style, and extraordinary concepts of its four pillars, the arcade-absurdities are over there.

System Warning – Alert – The Mainframe is breached

Not the flaws due to assumptions, simplifications, abstractions, but the arcade-elements of the code, forcing the player to chase down the code-units, for the warfare the name of the game is, falls on top of the grand strategy, by her strong simulation elements, with a mighty crash.

Even though you are ready, you are willing, you are able to accept, grudgingly or reasonably, all the arguments for its assumptions, simplifications, abstractions for the various aspects of its design, the arcade-absurdity of the code creates the stain, and you are not able to clean it once observed. Even though the supply system and the military access and the absurd decision matrices of the code are ultimately agreeable judging by the available resources, the inherent design devours all the light by creating its own event horizon.

System Warning – Critical Alert – Unauthorised access to bay doors is detected

The simulation of the populations over the map through a certain period of time. Every concept of this can be explained, and that was your voyage, but one out of them; that does not exist.

Yes, that is your voyage. To catch the moment of the decision of the code at the critical time that it makes against the variation of any input. Sometimes it fails, yet rarely, if not sometimes, it does roll the dice, makes its calculation, determines its goal, follows its ambition, struggles against the challenge. At least it tries, as it is determined to reach the equilibrium-solutions of its functions.

That is why you are playing this game, and you do know it, and you are chasing that probability in the system of functions limited by the conditionals in the loops of the lines.

System Warning – Critical Alert – Unauthorised exit – Initiating system fail-safe

But that concept remains in the dark. The one that does not even exist, beyond being a failure. The simulation of the history of the populations over the map through a certain period of time, and you search for the interaction with the code in this endeavour. Your voyage is doomed to fail if you consider it, as there is no human being in the simulation of the game.

System Warning – Critical Alert – Sequence Failure

The cousin of this game, crusader kings, is many steps far beyond it, despite her own limits, as it jumps into the level of its characters, instead of running over obscure lines of borders as entities called realms. Not sufficient as considering the populations by only the ruler class, but still far beyond this game. And this game has no character in it, the role of the player is an abstraction of a colour within a black border-line, it is depicted on a vague map. The events of random or scripted nature ultimately collapse under this analysis, as they are completely detached even from the story of the only characters given in the game, called the monarchs, and even they do not exist.


There is only one human being in the game.


It is you, the only one in this game.


That is how you saw it through the illusion, as it implodes into the darkening singularity of the void, with its astronomical scale gravitational field, attracting the mass so severely that the light is entrapped, never to escape, ever to scream in silence.


It would be you. But you are not.

System Error – Critical Alert

Your eyes blink, your wound is bleeding, your breathing races with your heartbeats. It would be you playing the game, whether knowing why this game else unaware, but you are not even there.

As the sorrowing fear began, you did tell yourself the reasons before. Careful, the why is the linguistic tool of the weaker kind, only applicable to explain your behaviour to you, not the tool of the stronger kind, the how. You do not remember it how you have arrived here, but that is entirely exclusive to your predicament. Your real, to answer the why, not for this game, but for you, for what you do now.

In fact, you were able to dive into the mind-jumps through the lucid-streamings of infinite-loops, and you did so willingly. It is unfinished, and the need you have ever had you do know it, yet the pain is there, and this is the diversion. The vectors of the space are to be discovered, as you closed your eyes from the reality, while the time is running in its direction, yet the scalar it is.


Return to your visible question of why this game, and it is now known by you, as you do your voyage through its run-time. Yet that question is born out of the contradiction you become aware of, as there is no population in this simulation of the history of populations over the map through a certain period of time. There is only you.

Unfortunately you are mistaken in your perception, but it is not about the game.

System Error – Critical Alert

The problem you ignored. The game is still played, before even hitting the play. Even if a life is left devoid of it, the play will resume in the mind. Do not worry, but they are called dreams, the art exclusive to the person they belong to.

System Error – Critical Alert

And do not worry, as this is not a dream. The reality of you in the surreal voyage of yours is dismissed by you, that was the error in your senses. Do not worry, you are the real, yet you dismissed the perception in exchange of the illusion of the simulation.

Wait. But you said, you acknowledged, you knew that the illusion was broken. It is broken, and you look at the real now, as you have to tend the wound of yours. Mind-jumps certainly helped, lucid-streaming obscured the process, in the infinite-loops you lost the concept of the time. Now you see the real with your eyes.

But.

System Error – System Error –

You asked all the questions possible, while knowing the remaining others in the void. The critical one, though, you completely disregarded it.

System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error – System Error –


How?



What year is this?



Who are you???

Spoiler: The shape

[**]​

-THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS-​

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[*] The Voyage, composed by Andreas Waldetoft, performed by Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, conducted by Bernd Ruf (2013)
[**] Shape of My Heart of the album Ten Summoner's Tales by Sting (1993). Minor appropriation on the lyrics.

Edit 07.07.2023: Corrected formatting, grammatical, factual mistakes. Corrected images.