NationStates Jolt Archive

Note: I am not a newbie. Some of you may remember me as Green Sun, Pananab, or Valley of the Giant. It's been about a year.

Here's an Earth for you. Instead of PT, MT, PMT, or FT, let's play some Steampunk.

I'm really not looking for a bunch of alliances to pop up and everyone live all happily ever after. In fact, I'm hoping for some conflict, but not just a bunch of steamrolling and war. I'm looking for actual competition on economic, political, and military levels. Out-speak, out-sell, and out-smart your neighbors! That's not to say everyone should be at one another's throats. One alliance versus another would be fine, too. A Cold War would work just as nifty.

Now, I'm being very loose with what is allowed, unless violations come into play. Essentially, if you can think of it and explain how it works, pretty much any technology, provided that it's in the vein of steampunk, will work. For example, a high-resolution screen won't fly, but perhaps a hologram that uses steam and lights to create images would. A cellphone as we know it will be out of place, but why not a portable telegraph?

The main resource is energy. Any style goes BEFORE WW2. So you can stretch your visual and political styles from the Depression all the way back to the beginning of time. A Roman-like steam-powered tank would be welcomed. An F-14 would not.

Electricity is allowed to a small extent. Electricity is not the main source of power here. So power plants are a no-no. Gasoline is not used, but diesel can be. Pretty much, the source of an object's energy must come from within the device. Input of fuel or energy leading to its function. It can't be charged from an outside source, nor will anything that charges be allowed. Use your head. If someone blows the whistle on a piece of tech, we'll investigate it. Other than that, I'm allowing a lot of leeway.

Some good ideas that might work:
Steam
Natural (Wind, solar, tidal, etc.)
Nuclear (To an extent)
Bio (Shove in some plant matter, it breaks it down...)
Diesel (But not gasoline)
Gears/Clock (Must be wound up to work)

That's just a few to start. It is best to ask first on whether or not a piece of tech is acceptable.


Nations will not exceed 500 million in population. If you have over 500 million, you can choose any number at or below 500 million. Any increases will be done in-game. Your economy is determined by your in-game status, but all else is left up to you.

Map with labels (http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=steampunkkm3.png)
Without labels (http://img361.imageshack.us/my.php?image=steampunkev0.png)

Factbooks are welcome, and will be linked Questions? Claims?

Steelternia: 12 Million (Growing rapidly)
Hydrosteria: 240 Million

Bump

Bump

I would be interested in this. Is it an off site forum then? A continuous RPG, not just sporadic scenarios like on here? I would indeed be interested in this in essence.

No, it's not an offsite forum. It's on here, but a little more organized as to what events are going on.

Great, it has been a long time since I saw one of these (http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=546618).

For the Motherland! (http://images.ea.com/games/redalert3/Units/Kirov/RA3_Soviet_Kirov2.jpg)

Also, is there any continent that is similar to Russia in weather?

Cut me some slack, it's been a couple years since I last played NS.

There's the northernmost continent to the east, and the westernmlost continent's northern parts are the two coldest. The continent to the west is closer to what you're looking for, I would think.

I'd like to, if possible, claim the northern half of the westernmost continent, with the southern boundaries at the area where the mountain range bend from northwards to eastwards. Also, which is the overall scale of the map?

I guessed about 1:50,000. It might be around 1:45,000, but it's the same size as Earth.

Updated Map (http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=steampunkjq5.png)

I'd like to get it a go if you might. Although would it be possible for me to have my civilisation in the freezing wastelands of the North Pole?

I can put them in that area, yes, but not directly on there unless you have a tech idea that would allow them to thrive.

How about on an area on the ice shelf where by i have drilled a series of tunnels to the land masses more inland areas to extract coal from the long fossilized remains of a jungle which existed on the inland millenia ago before continental drift crushed that plush verdant landscape beneath tons of ice.

I.E. I drill for coal, bring it back to the ice shelf area, boil water, and then use a series of large copper tubes and boilers to quickly turn ice cold water into torrents of steam to power the rag tag string of christmas fairy like lights that illuminate my city.

Is that acceptable?

Works for me. BTW, I need to know what population you want. You're over 500m, so, so you can choose your population, so long as it is =500m or <500m.

Updated map (http://img58.imageshack.us/my.php?image=steampunkze2.png)

Can i have a population of about 240 million? Taking into account i'm in a frozen wasteland i can't have a massive populaiton due to growing food, spreading myself across, through, down and over hte ice shelf how ever helps.

Also can you not call me the Utopian Soveit Union (never use that name in RPG since it sucks and i prefer to pick names which suit the setting) can you instead call my land "Hydrosteria".

Right then. (http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=steampunkkm3.png)

Feel free to start playing anytime.

Thank you very much, is the IC thread set up? If it ignore me becasue i'll find it when i click out this thread lol

There is no IC thread yet. I really haven't thought of any events to start, really, just a good notion on how my own nation works. Perhaps we should start there.

Steelternia is settled in a valley that is the equivalent of Mesopotamia in its importance. Steelternia is where the first civilizations were created, on the continent that is believed to be the origin of mankind. The remnants of these old civilizations are still be found just a few feet beneath the dirt and/or sand.

The people are not exactly united as one. To the north, a great General has united the largely nomadic and agrarian tribes to preserve their ways of life. General Yarrick Wash launches occasional skirmishes and rallies the people in contested areas to fight against the Chancellor ruling the southern lands, which hold the majority of the wealth. In the sands to the north, entire tribes make their livelihood as craftsmen and traders aboard giant desert-trekking machines that are handed down from generation to generation, while the fields are filled with nomads attending their flocks. The mountains are filled with miners and prospectors, and are seen as the most backward of all the cultures in Steelternia, having little formal education and are cut off from all but those who invest into their rich, metal, coal, and gem mines, and General Wash, of course.

To the south is a largely civilized region, run by diesel and steam, with some dabbling into self-contained nuclear energy. Led by Chancellor Markus Scratch, other nations see the Chancellorship as being the legitimate government, while General Wash is believed to be a terrorist. In truth, both sides see the other leader as a great one, and would gladly fall under their banner if needed. At the time, however, there is no need, and Steelternia is in a time of peace with its neighbors, which, for this ancient region, is a time of civil war and turmoil. When Steelternia isn't fighting itself, it is focused on preserving its land and culture against foreign powers that seek its rich resources and the history contained in its dirt. In these times, Steelternia becomes a power into its own right, uniting against its enemies. For now, it is a small, humble regional power attempting to get a hold of itself.

I'd like to claim that little island/peninsula looking landmass sticking out of the bottom right continent. Would it be alright to make that mountain in the middle of it into a volcano? I'm thinking of a dystopian fortress-city powered primarily by geothermal power. Also, I'm over 500 mil, so I'll set my population to 3 million.

No problem.

Here (http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=steampunklc9.png) you go. That was actually intended to be a volcano. One of two supervolcanoes, actually, that settled down long ago.

I sense a Yellow Stone Park kind of area with a lovely eruption decimating civilizations.... Tommorrow evening i will type up something on my own nation but alas i cannot do it now fot it is late but i might check a few times on here tonight to comment.

Awesome! I'll start writing up something... I assume you require a factbook from each of us?

No, but a good summary on what your nation would be very nice. You can post it in this thread, even.

The nation of Hydrosteria has established itself as an example of how to survive in extreme conditions. It's cities are scattered at various levels throughout the thick ice sheets that have extended across the northern continent. From the surface there are virtually no signs of civilization apart from the occasional telegraph poles which poke out of the surface and the funnels belching the out the breath of industry.

Although the cities tend to be arranged in multi-tiered layers in immense hollowed out caverns, dwellings also extend through hundreds of winding tunnels that encompass it's territory; the most prestigious areas however are in the inverted skyscrapers which hang from the bottom of the ice sheets and extend into the freezing ocean.

Hydrosteria however has had a socially unfair and turbulent history up untill recent times. Initially it was run by a corrupt "democracy" led by a President who was alternatly black mailed and bribed by the dozens of companies and corporations which thrived in Hydrosterias free market conditions. Oppressed, and with income levels for the lower classes drastically dropping a massive month long civil war took place, now know as the "Pay Day War"; it was this which resulted in Hydrosteria becoming the fairer place it now is.

Social unrest had been on the increase since the government allowed, for the first and last time, for a company to build a residential district in the form of one of the inverted skyscrapers. The company cut many building restrictions in their pursuit of profit, and this became abundantly clear when one of the lower class suburbs breached, rapidly filling with ice cold water and killing several hundred workers. The district was cleared whilst governmental analyists assessed the area, they were however found to be acting under the companies influence, a fact which made no difference for the company officials on trial who were bribing the jury and judge regardless. However the snapping point came when it was discovered that workers wages had been reduced to an all time low, but undoubtably when the district which had thankfully been evacuated lost it's mounting in the ice shelf and plummeted into the icy depths below.

The public outcry was immense, enraged at their exploitation the lower classes began forming into trade unions to represent their various proffessions. What followed was a mass strike by the Coal Miners Alliance, who supplied 95% of Hydrosterias power, and Agricultural Engineer Corps who cultivated, and distributed, Hydrosterias food. The city facing an imminent crisis as it's power was systematically shut off and food supplied locked away the city descended into anarchy, with many areas cut off due to the lack of power for transportation.

During an armed uprising in the capital however the corrupt government was instead overthrown, replaced by a board of representatives from each Trade Union formed in Hydrosteria. Now the nation is managed fairly and equally, each guarenteed an acceptable life style, but allowing individuals to thrive off their own ingeniuty. Even the armed forces is a trade union, often leading to problomatic issues as some trade unions refuse to pay the troops when they are seen as doing nothing.

Now howeve Hydrosteria intends on setting it's sights on the rich market of oppertunities abraod and the promises which it could hold for them.

Hmm...Okay. I have an idea on what we could do, then. Howsabout General Wash start to raid Hydrosterian operations in Steelternia, starting a bit of a wazoo?

“My son, the city
That bears the name of Dis is drawing near,
With its grave citizens, its great battalions.”
Inferno, Canto VIII 67-69

Thyra is a massive self-contained city-state built around the semi-dormant supervolcano Tmolus, an island unto itself in the southern hemisphere. Totalitarian industry is the name of the game in Thyra: the entire city has been built into a terrible dystopian fortress of industry, in which human lives are just another resource to be utilized and economic power is just another manifestation of the absolute power of the state.

Enter a Dis more frightening in its reality than any that Dante could have conjured forth from his page. Three million common-class citizens cram themselves into tenements and warrens of basalt and tuff amongst the Cyclopean foundations of steam-powered citadels and the concentric rings of defensive fortifications that bind the city, citizens who have never seen the sun through the perpetual clouds of steam, smoke and ash that choke Tmolus’ skies; they walk the narrow streets on their way to work in the thousands of manufactories that choke the mountain’s slopes, amid sheets of ash that gently fall in the place of snow, like a mockery of a white Christmas Eve; Columns of black-clad soldiers patrol the streets, a constant reminder of the state’s total power of life and death over the city; aircraft swarm the skies above, flitting between the heights of citadels or droning powerfully over civilian sectors, more psychological propaganda given concrete form. Pungent clouds of incense from the eternally burning crowns of thorny spires mingle with ululations in honor of dark Vulcan, the slumbering giant at the volcano’s heart that the masses have seen fit to deify – and the state has seen fit to tolerate.

In short, Thyra exists as a perpetuation of itself and its ideals: the perpetuation of absolute power for its own sake, the means and the end unto itself. Whether it be by the sheer capacity of its economic production or the bombs and bullets of its armies, Thyra will never hesitate to crush any and all opposition to its goals, shadowy and unclear as they may be.

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That sounds like as good a starting RP as any. The best part about playing a totalitarian state is, I don't even need a rational reason to get Thyra involved! XD

"Looks like they're fighting."
"Huh. This may impede our mercantile connections in the area."
"Then let's bomb them until they stop!"
"Great idea!"

Oh alright then. Here's a description for you Steelternia of my nations "visible" areas. Apart from approaching it from the ocean, where upon you'll see skyscrapers hanging from the ice shelf, the only way is to cross the tundra, dozens of railway tracks lead from the mountain coalmines and towards and eventully down into tunnels which lead to Hydrstaeria, those lead into depots which tend to be guarded by the army depending on which company is running it. From there lies the many twisting turns and caverns of Hydrosteria. Enjoy!

Hmm, this looks awesome, Can i join?

Yup, there's still plenty of space to be claimed.

So, anything more happening, or have we lost interest?

I'm waiting for a story thread to be started.