Earth II [Main Thread | OOC | Open RP]

[URBOV]

Had a very detailed dream this morning about the first act of nuclear terrorism on American soil and that I first read about it on here. A 1 kT tactical nuclear device having been set off in a funeral home on the outskirts of Gary, Indiana.

And then having driven with some of my brothers to go check out the mushroom cloud. Saying something like "Wow, you think about Hiroshima and how big the cloud was, these tactical nukes are really kind of small. They're like, baby nukes. Frankly, I'd be a little embarrassed to be killed by one of these."

Someone call the NSA, he's confessing!

(Joking....maybe)

[Layarteb]

Had a very detailed dream this morning about the first act of nuclear terrorism on American soil and that I first read about it on here. A 1 kT tactical nuclear device having been set off in a funeral home on the outskirts of Gary, Indiana.

And then having driven with some of my brothers to go check out the mushroom cloud. Saying something like "Wow, you think about Hiroshima and how big the cloud was, these tactical nukes are really kind of small. They're like, baby nukes. Frankly, I'd be a little embarrassed to be killed by one of these."

Isn't Gary where - or at least near - they make Humvees? Is this a precursor or something you're going to do Das Empire, we've been nuked before (i.e. Saint Georges), we don't need it again.

As far as electricity consumption goes - shouldn't be too hard. Figure what level of economic devopment you're basing your nation's off of - US, Germany, China, Iran, whatever. Find their consumption as compared to their population and GDP, then calculate yours using that ratio with your own population/GDP.

The drawback is that do we want to entertain guesstimates or do we want something realistic. Then, if we allow guesstimates here, where does it go. I mean I know I can safely figure out mine to a realistic level but how can I ask that of everyone - you know? I also don't want to do this in order to make up random data, I'd rather it be realistic enough so that Brink can operate on it with some sense of assurance.

[Khorsun]

Well the thing with the resource flows is, no, we don't really gain much from having hyper-precise figures on anything, but we do gain a lot from figuring out the economic interdependencies of our countries.

Byz plays China for instance, which is a big oil importer. That tells him he needs close relations with one or more of the oil exporters, or that he should focus his expansion on grabbing more oil. It also tells any of his rivals that threatening the oil supply would be a strategy to take against him.

That's the direction I want this to end up in - a deeper layer of geopolitics strategy, not a full-spectrum economic simulator. As far as guesstimates, I think that's acceptable as long as you get them peer-reviewed and approved by the rest of the community.

[Byzantium Imperium]

Well the thing with the resource flows is, no, we don't really gain much from having hyper-precise figures on anything, but we do gain a lot from figuring out the economic interdependencies of our countries.

Byz plays China for instance, which is a big oil importer. That tells him he needs close relations with one or more of the oil exporters, or that he should focus his expansion on grabbing more oil. It also tells any of his rivals that threatening the oil supply would be a strategy to take against him.

That's the direction I want this to end up in - a deeper layer of geopolitics strategy, not a full-spectrum economic simulator. As far as guesstimates, I think that's acceptable as long as you get them peer-reviewed and approved by the rest of the community.

No, I play based on China. I am not the PRC. I don't "need" close relations with any nation I either choose or do not choose to do business with or even recognize as legitimate. While I lost it even prior to setting up however, that was the purpose of Chinese Arabia/the UAE. Then the Magic Catholics took it over.

[Layarteb]

Attention all - the party has begun in Monaco!

Monaco RP

Remember it's formal - points go to people with amazing outfits JUST BECAUSE. Guess that goes more for the women since the men are all tuxedos. Yes if your people show up improperly dressed they will be sent away.

[RomeW]

Someone call the NSA, he's confessing!

Pretty sure the NSA already knows...I mean, if there's one site you'd want to spy on, it's NS, with all of its anarchists and stuff...

So as I've discussed with some people on IRC, I'm returning as a Partial Member (less time constraints). I'll be using this role to have a string of characters of all different backgrounds and political persuasions (probably all men at the moment though I hope I'll be able to eventually write as women). These characters will largely be in non-violent roles, academics, scavengers, wanderers, etc. I'm sort of hoping that through them I'll be able to write about under represented aspects of E2, tourism, daily life, etc. and maybe develop some schools of thought unique to E2.

I've gotten permission from Layarteb, ItalianMafias, and Brink to have various characters, if anyone else would be cool with it please let me know. While I may not immediately rush to create people, it'd be cool to have a host of options in my back-pocket.

I'd be more than happy to have a few characters...since I want to do some character-based RPs myself.

[Layarteb]

Someone call the NSA, he's confessing!

Pretty sure the NSA already knows...I mean, if there's one site you'd want to spy on, it's NS, with all of its anarchists and stuff...

NSG is alone enough reason to spy on this place - that's just a - well even fantasy novels don't have places that dark and grim.

[Khorsun]

I meant that you're playing as a nation occupying roughly the PRC's territory - and assuming you have a similar level of industrialization and economic development as the PRC, then you'll also have similar resource needs to the PRC and you'll need to supply those needs somehow. It doesn't have to be the same way the PRC does it at all, but you'll have to find out who the suppliers are, and it all fits into our nations more inter-connected and involved in each other's RPs.

Tabulating the exact production levels of every individual resource isn't what we want to do - what we want to do is figure out the general resource flows and economic trends. Who, for instance, has the cheapest workers and loosest labor restrictions? - they'll be a magnet for factory out-sourcing.

Maybe Cotland needs to import food since most of his land's not suited for grain crops - where's the corn and wheat coming from? But maybe in turn Cotland's controlling the power grid for a lot of Europe, thanks to Scandinavia's hydropower - other countries might run on Cottish power to spare themselves pollution and fossil fuel needs, or as a condition to enjoy access to Cotland's weapons exports or military protection as well.

Interacting is not only a matter of knowing who your friends and enemies are, but also of knowing what kind of power our nations can wield against one another. We know the sphere of military power very well - we know that globally TOA is our military superpower bloc, that Hi No Moto is a regional hegemon in East Asia, that Cotland is the dominant European power, and so on.

But we're not as clear on what kinds of economic power we've got. We're not really clear on what measures we have in between diplomatic warnings and displays of military force to influence other nations' behaviors - and we should be. Russia's economic leverage is key to understanding the current Crimean crisis, for example: Ukraine depends on Russia for something like 30-40% of its trade, while Ukraine accounts for only a few percent of Russia's - and that's not even getting into Europe's natural gas reliance on Russia.

We should see some very interesting new dynamics emerge if we figure this shit out. Brink, for example, is something pretty different from what we've got in RL - his Africa is our global economic superpower, but his military influence is strictly defensive and relegated to policing his own continent.

If we come to the conclusion that the heavily-militarized TOA nations rely on Brink to supply the consumer goods their populations expect for a First World lifestyle, then that means Brink has the economic leverage to influence their decision making. TOA's military chiefs might be ready and willing to launch total war on all of their nations' enemies, and their leaders might prefer fighting their enemies to an unconditional surrender than to a negotiated peace, but if Brink decides that a particular war is interfering with his nation's trade interests, then he might use his leverage to force TOA to negotiate with an enemy rather than fight it to total destruction.

[RomeW]

That's the direction I want this to end up in - a deeper layer of geopolitics strategy, not a full-spectrum economic simulator. As far as guesstimates, I think that's acceptable as long as you get them peer-reviewed and approved by the rest of the community.

I think for something like GDP, I'd rather we use a "generated" stat or have some kind of formula to figure out as opposed to a straight guesstimate- not just because of the possibility of abuse but also because GDP tends to be affected by a multitude of sources, not the least of which is the total income of the people of your nation. If you're not producing enough, your income won't be that good, which will affect GDP.

For economics, I agree we don't need to go in depth. Perhaps all we need is to understand basic layers of national consumption- i.e., instead of trying to figure out how many apricots and dates we consume, we just need to figure out a generic "food" statistic that tells us how much we eat and how much we produce. Same thing with stuff like fuel and manufacturing- we shouldn't concern ourselves too much with the specifics, just that we're able to provide what our country needs.

Then we can add stuff like health care, education and infrastructure into the mix, with the amount invested in them being able to add or subtract to your GDP, since that kind of stuff affects productivity. Unemployment would be difficult to figure out, though, since that's usually affected by specifics within a country but, with enough thought, I think we might be able to figure out a simple metric.

[Layarteb]

Earth II History Change Form

Mark with an X on the applicable fields:
[ ] Addition
[x] Change (original goes in deletion; change goes in addition)
[x] Deletion

[ ] New Member
[x] Established Member

Reason for Change/Deletion (if applicable & be thorough): Fixing up Novacron now that he's premade, fixing my population.

Additions (use as many of these as necessary, use US date system (month day, year), do not use st, nd, rd, or th)

• January 1, 2014: [Layarteb] The population of the Empire of Layarteb is estimated at 1,357,615,000.

Deletions

• January 1, 2014: [Layarteb] The population of the Empire of Layarteb is estimated at 1,358,050,000.
• January 2, 2014: [Novacron, Urbov(Ru)] Georgian aircraft, hoping to incite war between Azerbaijan and Persia, and to get back at them for supporting the Adjarians, secretly fly through Azerbaijani airspace and bomb several refugee camps inside of the Persian border and in the Nakhchivan region. Unfortunately, several Georgian aircraft are shot down, leading the Persians to prepare for immediate war against Georgia. A declaration soon follows.
• January 3, 2014: [Layarteb, Novacron, Urbov(Ru)] Layartebian forces return to the Black Sea but only with a small naval flotilla consisting of destroyers, frigates, and a cruiser. At the same time, Persian aircraft gain permission to fly through Azerbaijani airspace to bomb Georgian targets. The Azerbaijanis reluctantly agree and give the Persian aircraft very narrow corridors for their ingress and egress routes. During the mission, several Persian aircraft accidently stray and are engaged by Azerbaijani surface-to-air systems. Two aircraft are destroyed and one is damaged. The Azerbaijanis offer no apology and blame the Georgians.
• January 5, 2014: [Novacron, Urbov(Ru)] Deciding that Azerbaijan is as much of a threat as Georgia is, the Kingdom of Persia declares war on Azerbaijan.

[Earth_ Two]

Earth II
Latest Update

General Updates

• Hi No Moto
  
  • Claims added.
  • Spreadsheet updated.
  • Thread added.
• Kalimor
  
  • Aircraft code can only be one or two letters - please revise and post.
• Khorsun
  
  • Spreadsheet updated.
• Novacron
  
  • Due to account deletion, membership removed - premade state added.
• Olmeria
  
  • Due to account deletion, membership removed.
• RomeW
  
  • Claims (1) added.
  • Claims (2) updated.
  • Malta / Greece Trade complete.
  • Map updated.
• Terra Reborn
  
  • Claims updated, you are now under the limit.
  • History updated.
• The Alliance of United Worlds
  
  • Welcome Back.
  • Claims updated.
  • Spreadsheet updated.
  • Thread added.
• United States of Brink
  
  • World Cup V link added.
• Urbov
  
  • Partial membership status added.

Special Announcements
Well 2014 is here and we've put our ninth year behind us, something indeed! There were a lot of changes in 2013 thanks to our new thread. Some of the highlights include new claims maps, a new format to our main thread, a total history revision, and some lengthy (but fantastic) threads. Despite the low membership (perhaps the lowest of any year), we remain a stable and well-rounded group. In light of this, I feel that I should start a goal's list for Earth II for 2014 and share it with everyone.

• Update member histories to end of 2013 minimum. See here for more details.
• Get World Cup V going.
• Increase total (active + pending) membership to 22 (+6.5 players from where we stand today).
• Get us an up-to-date entry on IIwiki.
• Restart the bank and stock exchange.
• Continue improvement discussion.

The goals are small for now but we can add them as time goes – and I would love to cross them out with strikethrough as we accomplish them. These goals aren't entirely on myself – I need your help as our community's members on each and every one of these bullet points. Let's make 2014 a year of true revitalization for our RP! Wouldn't it be nice to celebrate our 10th anniversary in November with a bang and a half?

In light of our improvements discussion, we have taken these initial steps - and who is taking ownership:

• Creation of a Twitter-like page [Everyone].
• Creation of a United Nations (with a different name) [Brink].
• Implementaton of TGs to inform members of new threads in their region [Layarteb].

Current Update: Sun Mar 09, 2014 5:03 pm [EDT]
Last Official Update: Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:49 pm [EST]
Page 44

[Layarteb]

reposted

[Layarteb]

FYI folks - I'm not sure if it's been forgotten about - but for the new players you might want to add entries to our Consolidated Thread, which has a variety of useful information about nations.

To all - I have updated my entry.

[United States of Brink]

Busy week, I'll continue the WC Friday and updated the SE.

[Khorsun]

Post updated to include your official reply in WotR, Lay.

[Layarteb]

Noted thanks Khorsun.

FYI for folks if you edit posts by adding things such as diplomatic messages, etc. it's always good form to let those know.

Also I see our discussion on changing up RP and what not has seem to have stalled a bit, I'd like to keep it going just because we've only resolved what I think are minor avenues, not the whole shabang.

[RomeW]

I'd like to take the time to declare, pending approval, that “The Illyrian Candidate” is finished with the following claims resolved:

--Switzerland
--Slovenia
--Croatia
--Bosnia-Herzegovina
--Serbia
--Montenegro
--Albania
--Kosovo
--Macedonia (FYR)
--Bulgaria
--Romania
--Greece (part)
--Turkey
--Tunisia
--Libya (Sirte, Misrata, Murqub, Tripoli, Jafara, Zawiya, Nuqat al-Khams)

I'm going to make another post that will update my history and place my other claims in a new thread, but I'm at work so this is all I can do for now.

EDIT- I'd also like to formally change the name of my country to the Roman Commonwealth.

[Layarteb]

I'd like to take the time to declare, pending approval, that “The Illyrian Candidate” is finished with the following claims resolved:

--Switzerland - 50/50

--Slovenia - There's two sentences for this entire invasion and really just ignores Lacoze entirely.
--Croatia - There's two sentences for this entire invasion and really just ignores Lacoze entirely.
--Bosnia-Herzegovina - There's two sentences for this entire invasion and really just ignores Lacoze entirely.
--Serbia - There's two sentences for this entire invasion and really just ignores Lacoze entirely.
--Montenegro - There's two sentences for this entire invasion and really just ignores Lacoze entirely.

--Albania - This is another one with just a "Oh we conquered it" approach with no heed whatsoever to the SBC that was there.
--Kosovo - This is another one with just a "Oh we conquered it" approach with no heed whatsoever to the SBC that was there.
--Macedonia (FYR) - This is another one with just a "Oh we conquered it" approach with no heed whatsoever to the SBC that was there.

--Bulgaria - You totally just ignore the fact that Lacoze was still a functioning government here and again it's a whole country in a meager few paragraphs
--Romania - You totally just ignore the fact that Lacoze was still a functioning government here and again it's a whole country in a meager few paragraphs

--Greece (part) - 50/50 there was more effort here than the rest it seems

--Turkey - Was this even mentioned once?
--Tunisia - Was this even mentioned once?
--Libya (Sirte, Misrata, Murqub, Tripoli, Jafara, Zawiya, Nuqat al-Khams) - Was this even mentioned once?

I'm going to make another post that will update my history and place my other claims in a new thread, but I'm at work so this is all I can do for now.

EDIT- I'd also like to formally change the name of my country to the Roman Commonwealth.

I just don't know what to say - I've always approved claims in the past and maybe just said "Hey add a wrap-up post" but the scale of land being claimed here I just can't with good conscience blanket approve it, unless others feel differently. I've been trying to raise standards here and trying and trying and trying but I don't know.

[RomeW]

1) I asked you, Lay, how many posts I needed and how much I needed to write. You never answered the question.

2) That's a lot of countries but it's not a lot of land. I remembered my last claim thread had 60 posts but I had Egypt- a territory of about 380,000 square miles- resolved after three battles. Sudan and South Sudan were resolved with less- we're talking maybe 10 posts or so of actual battles resolving two of Africa's largest countries. So I figured, at minimum, I needed about three posts or so to wrap up similar amount of territories, which is what I did- in fact, I wrote a bit more in Constantinople because it was so important. Then you told me I couldn't resolve Switzerland so quickly (you said nothing about the rest of the Balkans, and Lacoze was corrupt, so there's a lot of leeway there), so I wrote a story for it- 20 posts' worth. I did more in this thread than I did with the Egypt thread, which was approved.

3) Western Pacific resolved territories equaling about half of what I did in 11 posts. I did 20 in a 36-post thread. WP had his claims approved with less, and just because he was a new nation at the time doesn't cut it.

4) I know it's not a grandiose, 300-page masterpiece of epic writing but I decided I didn't have to- this was a claim thread, and all I needed to do was have posts that established that I took over a country. I did that. You have also said on many occasions, Lay, that in our claim threads we don't always have to write bang up posts. So I decided I didn't have to.

Again, this all goes back to the fact that I wanted an answer for what the standard was and never got it. So I had to guess. I accept I got it wrong and I'll adjust the thread accordingly. I just really need to know what to do now- if I gotta do 20 posts where Alexia establishes herself in Byzantium and another 20 with elections all over the Balkans and in Tunisia and Libya, then so be it. Just tell what I need to do.

All I want to do is resolve some claims that are rather important to me as quickly as possible, because I've been burned on claims lately and I determined that I should no longer leave them hanging. I also want to resolve them because I want to be able to get more involved in other facets of E2 and give them my full attention. I've been "inactive" on E2 for too long and I really want to get back into the swing of things.

I apologize for giving you a hard time Lay, but this is starting to become a headache. I really want to do things the right way- I always have- I just need to know how to do it. Is that too much to ask?

[Byzantium Imperium]

--- Never mind, having an opinion is illegal.

[Khorsun]

If you've got no appetite for the fine details of military invasion and occupation I'd argue there's no need to post more than the broad strokes of the actual military campaign.

But if you're not going to do a full writeup of the military side, then you should certainly make up for it with some serious political intrigues, ethnic disputes, internal adjustments, or something. How for example is the Roman economy adjusting to the acquisition of so much new territory? Is here going to be a big military expansion to properly control it all? Where are the big new bases going? How are you dealing with the ethnic minorities who don't like being little pieces of a big empire now?

You've just doubled or tripled the size of your country, added a couple dozen new ethnic groups, etc. If you want to skim on military details, then give us more on how your country is adjusting to these massive changes and administering all the new territories.

[Byzantium Imperium]

I hereby lay claim to the following on the grounds I consider them part of the original Res Publica Sinae as defined by Edvarus, in result they will all be handled (properly!) in Arise Great China:

India (Arunachal Pradesh)
Russia (Khabarovsk Krai)
Laos (Contesting Hi No Moto)
Myanmar (Kachin)
Tajikistan (Gorno-Badakhshan)
Russia (Tuva Republic)
Vietnam (Contesting Hi No Moto)
Nepal
Bhutan

[RomeW]

I'm sorry I embarassed Earth II...I demand higher standards for myself. Truth is, I just panicked, so I rushed it...but I did spend about a week just writing for that thread, so it's not like I didn't try. I just didn't execute, that's all.

I'll keep all of my claims for now and do a better thread...Khorsun gave me ideas. Real nations can't rush things, and neither should I.

[Layarteb]

Glad to hear - and if you want me to play a role with you I gladly will. I'll put in Greece & Switzerland then as complete.

[Hi No Moto]

I'll go ahead and contest Byz's claim to Myanmar (Kachin State).

Also Byz do you fancy starting a new thread for these claims otherwise we'll have to do the contesting of Vietnam and Laos in my thread and the contesting of Kachin in yours ... Primary claimants and all that.