pslblog

Reply to Does Anyone Else Not Like How Units Are Handled In Elemental? in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

Madness! Everybody knows that when more than a company of troops is collected, administrative overhead develops! Try to understand the beauty of the world Stardock is giving us to play in: you can have military formations without paperwork! Or perhaps the nice folks at Stardock could take a look at Mount&Blade and see what can be done towards creating mixed units. I'd really love it if I could establish a line and have it protect archers. It would be cool if flanks

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="seanw3" reply="58" id="3085509"]I am a linguist. I speak Russian fluently and grew up with Spanish and English. I feel every American has a duty to serve the country in some way. Mine is language fortunately because I am a terrible shot. : ) I also need to get on the G.I. Bill to finish my bachelor in Russian. We may have all that industry but we don't mind cutting a near graduate loose by cutting financial aid. I plan to go into Cryptography. I am hoping that my skills and ed

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="seanw3" reply="56" id="3085487"]Well said. Say, are still in the NAVY? I am joining up this spring. I also happen to live in Washington. [/quote] I am no longer in the Navy, although I am in Oregon, your neighbor to the south that has the better beer. OK, that's not accurate: Your neighbor to the south that has the BEST beer in the world, and is working on the other fermented beverage supremacy. So what if you have a much larger software industry, Boeing, and all

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="seanw3" reply="54" id="3085338"]Interesting. I recently wrote a paper on how the fall of the Soviet Union has actually led post-soviet states to become more capitalistic than America. We, on the other hand, have become increasingly socialist, as has much of the western world. My conclusion was that Marx's theory of capitalistic expansion will soon turn post-soviet states into the next exploitable resources. Given the extreme pressure on capitalism in the past decade and those

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tormodino" reply="51" id="3083585"] When you say you "like this to be more about embracing freedom as the best method to achieve lasting security for states, but the power fantasy and goth fetishism is sapping the coherence of the implementation", do you even know what you mean? [/quote] A significant contributor to my obscurity is a strong desire to not link current political extravagance to this argument because of the unthinking hostility it engenders. The sem

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="44" id="3083339"]Well that's the thing. Cities would not start off with wealthy 'nobles'. And the cherokee example was just to show that a large portion of the Native Americans had economically assimilated into co-Americans with the Colonials until the Colonials decided that they wanted all the land under one economy. A kingdom nation would start with all citizens (and worthless drudges if the taxes got too high), and then you could add buildings w

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="39" id="3082782"]Does this mean that you disagree with the idea of dissident nobles, and the idea of a "wealthy citizen type" in the Kingdom (noble) that may lead to rebellion if not appeased by certain means? (A wealthy but dysfunctional city will split off from the rest (in an attempt to maintain wealth and decrease dysfunction) ... ie Milan, Florence, and other Italian city states) -> albeit the circumstances of Italian city states was a bit different, d

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="41" id="3083070"]Hmm. Well, I got a little side-tracked. As far as Rebels vs Drudges, we were trying to use strictly medieval contexts. The Nazis were able to rise to power due to the desperation brought about by economically hard times.[/quote] Actually, there was a strong drive throughout the world for centrally controlled non-traditional government systems inspired by railroads and fueled by the introduction of mass media. That same centra

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="37" id="3082531"]Hmm. Still, from a game perspective ... they want there to be some penalty for high taxation (as they want higher taxes to always produce more gold, albeit with increasingly less returns, as opposed to bleeding the taxbase dry). The Magna Carta was signed in part because the nobles were really upset about the excessive taxes of King John, and it is possible that they were threatening Civil War. below is an excerpt from Wikipedia (yes

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Alstein" reply="34" id="3082518"]Why not just do a simple rename to Wastrels, Rogues, Loiterers, or Malcontents? (take your pick) [/quote] You have to be rich to afford loiterers and such. We've been rich for so long we forget that urban poverty is something that comes to advanced and wealthy places. Because the land is torn and shattered, there aren't incredibly fertile river deltas that can support idle and indolent populations. While wastrels ar

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="25" id="3082325"] Quoting pslblog, reply 22 If that floats your boat, you might also look at: http://www.amazon.com/genius-war-German-general-1807-1945/dp/0133511146/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1329163033&sr=8-2 This will change your view about the importance of integrity and freedom. Could you extrapolate on this please? [/quote] Sorry, I forgot to actually extrapolate on this. The brief summary of "A Genius for War" is fai

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="25" id="3082325"] Could you extrapolate on this please? Also, just to play devil's advocate for a Moment ... the flip side we are talking about is a Kingdom. Not Free Enterprise, a Republic, or a Democracy ... but a Kingdom. A Mercantile economy and Monarchical governing, Hereditary rule. I don't see why we are putting so much 'freedom' association with Kingdoms.[/quote] 1.All monarchies are not the same and a lot has to do wi

Reply to There are 175 potential *tactical spells* in FE so far in FE Sneak Peeks Stardock Forums

[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="22" id="3082133"]"Torax, who grinds mountains to dust - I SUMMON YOU!" *throws red-white ball on the ground*[/quote] "Bedbugs who infested the nasty inn I stayed in last month -I SUMMON YOU" *Throws filthy mattress on the ground* OK, you have to figure that the channelers will start out small.

Reply to There are 175 potential *tactical spells* in FE so far in FE Sneak Peeks Stardock Forums

I will start believing in the true chaotic nature of the "Pandemonium" spell when it turns Air Shrills into birthday cakes...or any other celebratory pastries. (A giant cake that was inert until struck and then converted into scantily clad nymphs who stun your army would be classic.) Actually, that leads me to another idea: A tactical spell that would convert your enemies into small statuettes you could revive to use against other enemies in later battles would be great. It should hav

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="seanw3" reply="23" id="3082079"]As a student of Russian History, I know alot about this subject. [/quote] The take Col. Hammes takes on the Nicaraguan development is quite illuminating. A good bit of what he postulated was used by FM 3-24 and very successfully utilized in 2006-2008. http://www.amazon.com/Cen

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="seanw3" reply="19" id="3081959"]In Ivory Towers, my mod, you can only train minions. They have 80% less upkeep and are very weak. They take one turn to grab a spear and get in line. There is no training. It would be nice if this was the default way an Empire faction worked. It does make me think about having the Kingdom factions behave differently. I may take part of this idea. [/quote] I give the idea to you freely and will be happy to answer questions you have about

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Lord Xia" reply="20" id="3081977"]I feel that you are probably technically correct on this subject, and certainly surpass me in personal knowledge about the subject. But, overall...my opinion on what to call these people in this video game is simply this...I really don't care. Also, it seems the reaction seems a bit personal, as if these terms offend you in a personal-political way. Either way, I'm not terribly concerned. [/quote]

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="17" id="3081359"]Hmm ... larger populations .... weak units cost regular low population costs, elite units cost *extra population usage* So empire play uses mass amounts of weak units, and maybe a few elite units? Sounds good [/quote] Just as a reference, I've spent most of the last year actively participating in the Mount&Blade:Warband mod Sword of Damocles: Warband, so I've been kicking around the corners of most of this topic for a while

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="14" id="3080754"]How to model lack of brilliance? less taxes? or less research?[/quote] Lack of brilliance is certainly a research hit of the first order. It also means that improvements and developments deliver less efficiency gains than they do in more free kingdoms. This should give the Empire incentives to spy upon Kingdoms and subvert their leaders whenever possible. Also, Empire elite units should be always under scrutiny and n

Reply to How can I learn the basics of a turn based game like FE? in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Cruxador" reply="3" id="3080751"]I don't have any handy links, but ask some specific questions and we can answer them. I wouldn't recommend buying MoM for the sake of learning.[/quote] Are you saying that the developers of this game were corrupted by their playing of it?

Reply to How can I learn the basics of a turn based game like FE? in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

Go to GoG dot com and spend $6 for Master of Magic. It isn't as pretty as Elemental, but you can run it on a netbook. It also doesn't support Mods, which I consider the most important development in gaming in the last decade, and one thing that makes Elemental worth working at playing. One key thing to remember is to spam the world with subsidiary cities as much as you can stand. Do it too much and you'll get rolled up like a cheap rug. Do it too little and they'll squ

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="GW Swicord" reply="12" id="3080581"] Quoting pslblog, reply 6I'm trying to model the game's behavior on their attitudes and responses, not on the fancies of French intellectuals circa 1785 CE. The game's explanation is modern in its conception and doesn't stand up to historical reflection on assembling a civilization from wasteland. Rebellion is a hothouse flower, kept alive in the warm manure of civilization. Drudgery is universal, and stands up to the cold b

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="seanw3" reply="10" id="3079975"]pslblog, How much do you know about how the game works? Your ideas might have the beginnings of a really good core mod. You could make some buildings that do different things with unrest for Empire and Kingdom. If you do make it into a mod, make sure the Empire's buildings have lots of denizens just lying around all day on their roofs in the blistering heat. So nice to see a soldier on the forums. [/quote] First, I was a

Reply to Replacing "Rebels" with "Drudges" or "Thralls" in Fallen Enchantress Stardock Forums

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="8" id="3079411"]I suppose "Drudge" could replace the name "rebel" and instead of producing nothing could produce a fraction of a production point. If you want "Empires" to have a higher drudgery percentage (less happiness/belonging), then maybe slightly increase the productivity of Empire drudges. And additionally give Empires a building to boost the productivity of Drudges (or all citizens in general). Additionally, do not change the tax system (ie drudg

Reply to [BUG] Start error in FE Support Stardock Forums

I'm seeing this problem as well after a series of crashes. Uninstall and re-install did not help.