WesWorld

I was considering recently how small countries could advance their production without having to resort to years of factory-building or negotiating with Great Powers to pour in massive amounts of IP. Here is the thought I came up with...

Each factory starts in 1920 (or the starting year... whatever) building 1,000 tons per quarter. The next year, Y+1, that production goes up by 25 tons: say it's the local foreman getting better training, or the factory getting better equipment, or the workers being more productive or such. In Y+2, it jumps another 25 tons per quarter, so the factory now makes 1,050 tons per quarter in Y+2.

By 1935 (or Y+15), a country with one factory can make 1375 tons per year instead of only 1,000. By 1950 (Y+30), it can manufacture 1,750 tons - not quite enough to bump it to the next level, but still a substantial improvement overall.

Now, to offset this, we might want to make factories more expensive... say, 10 IP in the 1920s, 12 IP in the 30s, 14 IP in the 40s, and so on.

Please note that I am not necessarily suggesting this rule for us now, since we've already run the game this long with the standard rules. I'm mainly interested in what folks think of the idea, or trying to provoke better ideas in this vein. Comments?

I think in the future it might be more interesting (and balancing) to just divide up some of the larger nations, and conglomerate some of the smaller ones for a more level playing field.

I think we can get a few more years enjoyment from what we have running, tho.

Well considering the sim has existed on this board alone for 5 RW years spaning the time frame between 1921 and 1936, I'd say we have more than just a couple of years to play out. Once a world war breaks out the level of scripting well be pure hell, making the south america wars time lapse look like a blink of the eye.

As for the factory idea, it has some merrit. I've always been partial to doubling the number of factorys and increasing building costs by 50%. I'd also like to see factory tally's for army and airforce units as well but as they say that is for the next new and improved incarnation of Wesworld.

I am partial to a bonus, IP only rate.
Theory being that countries with large populations and low costs can mobilize large amounts of labor to do jobs that in industrialized countries take far fewer but more expensive machine operators that form the 'on the books' IP of factories.

I'm still of the opinion (minority, but second hand opinions don't make me look any smarter) that it is better to work in money than tons and ships get proportionately more expensive as they become more technologically advanced. The trend is that yes, you get more money, but the ships get even more expensive. This isn't reflected in the current rules.

Perhaps it should be turned on its ear. You have to grow your technology, not factories. If you don't invest in technology you only get to SIM ships at 1910 hull and engines not 1930. Your ships may be cheaper to buy but not world beaters and possibly a bit backward against contempories or you could be a tiny navy showing off your triaxial stablised AAA to the biggest navy in the world.

Cheers,

We're using a combination of dollars and tonnage (we call them "build points") at Navalism. This is sometimes criticised as overly complicated, but it also means that we have better opportunities for trading, as some countries are short on cash and others are short on build points.

That was something I was thinking about. A sort of common currency that can be used for anything, it would save on having to convert money to IP's ect.

Quoted

Originally posted by alt_naval
s or you could be a tiny navy showing off your triaxial stablised AAA to the biggest navy in the world.

I do find it ironic that the chronically underfunded Dutch still fielded just such AA, their gunlaying cm radar was more advanced than the Brits and Phillips parts were in most British radars. Still its an OTL example of what Alt-naval indicates, there was apparently will and money to develop tech, but they never got those BCs built.

That reminds me I need to go poke my nose back into Navalism and mutter "The Dutch are coming" to scare Rocky...