WesWorld

Well since Logi mentioned it, here is what we were working with. Note this is intended to be a drop-in replacement for the current economic rules plus some simple additions to cover overall military strength and technology. It does not at this time touch the dedicated naval rules (ie build times and Refits). I have not laid it out in a more "official" format, but rather the Q&A of my thought process.

Goal: Make a simple, but flexible system to replace the WW factory ruleset as the economic driver of a game.

Currencies: There should be two types of currency, one representing “How much can this nation afford?” and one representing “How much can this nation build?”. The goal of this is the split apart a nation's ability to build and afford military hardware to allow for more flexibility with more national development based on the game conditions as opposed to a locked-growth system with a single currency that does not allow for flexibility in national strength.

The “Build?” Currency: The “Build?” currency is called Production. This currency is meant to cover the nations ability to manufacture military equipment such as warships, tanks, bombers etc. In game, it is used to pay for sea, land, and air forces. A nation produces a number of points per turn that are allocated to these projects. A nation gains more points by investing “Afford?” currency.

Using Production during a game turn: Each military project has a point requirement. An amount of that requirement may be spent each turn from the pool of Production the nation has. Production unused at the end of the turn rolls over the next, and then is lost if unused.

Gaining more Production Points: A nation may invest Budget into gaining more Production points. Each point has a fixed cost which is modified by the ratio of Production to Budget. The Budget investment is multiplied by this figure to determin the increase in Production for the next turn.
[math]First we have a base value for improving the Production value by 1 full point, for now call this S. This is a fixed value for all nations. Next, take the ratio of Production to Budget, P/B, where P represents the number of Production points available this turn and B the same for Budget. This creates a modifier that is directly effected by the current status of the nation. The cost for adding a full Production point in a given turn S*[P/B], call this C. Then the value invested in the turn, I, is multiplied by C, and the resultant value is added to the Production pool [P] for the next turn's value [P_n]. To fill it out in one equation, P_n = {I * [S * [P/B]]} + P[/math]


How is the starting Production value determined?: The starting Production value is related to the Pig Iron production of the nation in question adjusted by its Steel production.

The “Afford?” currency: This currency, called Budget, is meant to represent a number of features of a real-world economy, such as political will, GDP, taxation, deficit spending, etc. In game, it is used to pay for everything, ranging from Production development projects, to battlecruisers. Each nation has a base value that they use for each turn, tho they can go as far over, or under, this total as they like, up to 200% of the base value. How much a nation over or underspends affects the growth of the base value for the next turn.

Using Budget during a game turn: Each project has a point requirement. An amount of that requirement may be spent each turn from the Budget the nation has. The nation’s used budget can vary from the base pool by up to 200%.

Adjusting the Budget base: Each turn, the afford base is adjusted by a percentage of the total spent less the base value from the previous turn. Note this adjustment can be positive or negative depending on how much the player under or overspent. 10% of the previous turns surplus (or deficit) is used to adjust the afford base. Supplemental: The growth value as previously calculated is multiplied by [World Average Budget]/[National Base Budget]. This is to help spur growth in smaller economies.

How is the starting Budget determined?: The starting budget is 1/100th of the 1870 GDP per Capita of the nation in question, adjusted for starting year and by relative economic strength based on GDP and population.

Classes of Nations: There are four rough classes of nations in the game. These classes have no bearing on what the player of the nation may do within the confines of the rules, they are meant solely to provide an approximate pecking order and judge of capability. At the top we have the major industrial powers, such as the United States and the UK. Nations in this class have much more “Build?” then they can ever hope to take advantage of by themselves. They are capable of not only seeing to their own needs, but also assisting nations with less “Build?” on military projects. Next we have the self-sufficient industrial powers, these would be nations like Japan or France. They have about equivalent “Afford?” and “Build?” They can cover their own needs, but not those of others to a large degree. Then we move to the Minor powers, the ABC countries are the best example here. These nations have more “Afford?” than their own “Build?” can handle, leaving them to order from the Major Industrial Powers. These are the smallest nations meant to be played as they can fully participate in the game’s economy and influence other nations. Finally we have the backwaters. These nations are rather strapped for both Budget and Production, and are not meant to be played as building them up to the point where they can stand alone is a long range effort.

What does the number of points invested in my armed forces mean?: The meaning of the points invested into a nation’s armed forces is meant to be a simple expression of the overall strength of a military branch of one nation compared to another nation. The only exception to this is the Navy, which has its own set of rules for the size and strength of the fleet, tho the total number of invested points is still important for technological progress.

How is military size handled?: A military has a strength that directly corresponds to the Production and Budget invested in it. This is the only aspect of military strength that his hardcoded into the rules. Beyond this, a player may fill out his military branches in any way he sees fit, with the exception of the Navy, which has more detailed rules. [Current WW rules, perhaps slightly modified.]

How is military technology handled?: Military technology is also covered by the Production and Budget invested in a given branch. The game masters determine how far ahead or behind the technology of the game timeline (GTL) is in comparison to the historical time line (HTL) for each branch. The nations with the highest investment in each category are considered to be cutting edge in that category (HTL date tech as altered by the GMs), with lower investment totals corresponding to more primitive indigenous technology. Naval technology may be more strictly defined, as the Navy itself is more explicitly defined.

My reasoning for some choices is outlined in the next post, breaking it up for readability.

Goal: I felt the current factory system has two big issues. 1) It does not adequately show overall industrial strength & 2) It is very inflexible in terms of growth. I wanted to address these in a simple manner that involved player choice as much as possible in order to let the game be sculpted by the players, not the rules.


Currencies: With that in mind, I felt a two currency system would be best. Having two variables allows for more flexibility when talking about growth. As long as the cost in each variable for in-game functions (excluding variable adjustment) is the same it adds little complexity as you are only dealing with a surplus of one variable assuming all of the one with a smaller value is used. I also feel that two currencies can better represent a nation's economy while remaining simple.


The “Afford?” currency/Budget: One of the variables I chose to work with was a income analog, as would be derived from taxation, war bonds, etc. A very real-world factor when it comes to the creation and upkeep of militaries. I felt using a adjusted percent of GDP per Capita was a good starting point as it approximates what sort of income would be available for military spending. Seeing as this sort of variable historically fluctuated over time, connecting its growth to player action made sense on both a realism and gameplay standpoint. Additional variables can be added onto the growth calculation to make it more realistic if desired by the player base.


The “Build?” Currency/Production: Basically a analog for the current factories, with the base value adjusted to better emcompace the overall industrial base as opposed to just the Naval base. Growth sees adjustment to make mobility around the middle easier then mobility at the ends (with the idea that the extremely low-end nations such as Ethiopia will not be played and the big industrial powers have plenty of production already). Additional variables can be added onto the growth calculation to make it more realistic if desired by the player base.



Military Size: I feel it is important to track land and air forces in addition to the Naval ones. However, I desired that such a system should remain flexible for players to define there militarizes how they choose. Keeping a sum of the invested points means we then have a way to judge comparative military strength while leaving the details up to the players themselves.


Technology: This is also very important I feel. Again, just using invested points means that it is up to the players to define the details, but the sim overall has a idea of how people stack up.