Nations "Out of the Box"

Nexus06 wrote:The articles for the journal are a great think, i remember back in the days when i used to play Papal States i used MS publisher to write down "the Roman Observer" wich was fun.

But i'd like to point out that sovereign of the world used to keep thenselves in touch by lettere just to exchange news and point of views, not necessarily to "close a deal". Now even if you are in the middle of nothing it doesn't imply that no connection can be established

Oh completely agree, however sometimes it is harder in some games to keep those relationships going. I do need in G9 to try and restart a few of the lapsed relationships...but I'll still wind up the Duke of Austria

Jason wrote:

Nexus06 wrote:The articles for the journal are a great think, i remember back in the days when i used to play Papal States i used MS publisher to write down "the Roman Observer" wich was fun.

But i'd like to point out that sovereign of the world used to keep thenselves in touch by lettere just to exchange news and point of views, not necessarily to "close a deal". Now even if you are in the middle of nothing it doesn't imply that no connection can be established

Oh completely agree, however sometimes it is harder in some games to keep those relationships going.   I do need in G9 to try and restart a few of the lapsed relationships...but I'll still wind up the Duke of Austria

And I have enjoyed the utters of the poor benighted heathen regional Governor Fong. It has caused me to research 18th Century China, which comes as welcome relief from the internal politics of the HRE. I would guess slanging off foreign potinates at the other end to the world hasn't done our Honor score any harm either.

Thanks for the suggestion, I may do something similar in the future to try and boost Honour. Though it will be concerning matters of a south African nature.

I think that Honour is one of they ways that Richard rewards players for helping him write the newspaper. The more you fill out your own section so he doesn't have to, the happier he is!

Rozwi_Game10 wrote:
We're talking to a handful of player nations and a trio of npc nations.

If we could find a means to talk to a player nation 'very far away' in the game, we would.

We have attempted to contact another player nation who is active in Africa, but nothing came of it for one reason or another.  

Ooh, I tell a lie. For sake of completeness, and due to the vagaries of African communications, we're now in contact with another of the player nations.

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Back to the suggestion of writing articles for the newspaper. I tend not to write stuff, to be honest, mainly as I've found that when I do the cost of the turn rises and I can't afford to use the method too often - as there's always a lot of work to be done with the month-to-month running of Rozwi (maybe its a coincidence, occurring with a lot of orders on my part?). There is scope for writing a ship-wrecked Europeans tale among the natives, however. As I do use such a chap to pen my in-game letters to Europeans - 'Big Frank', for those who haven't spoke to him, yet. But also the problem is that, quite rightly, European politics take centre stage and the 'letters to the editor' seem to be quite popular at present, so there'd be no room to publish anymore from Rozwi.

Have you found a connection between writing newspaper pieces and game costs? I haven't noticed it so far and would be a little disappointed if there was a connection. As Deacon said earlier, surely it actually makes Richard's job easier, fills the paper out, adds to the game dynamics.

I do enjoy writing my little pieces but if it's costing me actual cash as well as time, I might stop. Now looking at Stuart's comments on G10, some players might welcome that...

I have noticed no connection. It's just cut and paste for Richard, so easy.

What often drives my turn costs is asking my advisors complicated questions.

Maybe there's no connection at all.

When I started as Rozwi I was conscious of not wanting to get caught up writing lots of articles for the newspaper and to let my in-game actions speak for me. To that end, I do make quite the number of Orders each turn to further the position - and it's just been coincidence that when I have offered something for the newspaper it's coincided with extra work being needed due to my orders, such as looking into a place in Africa for the maps or what level of technology does Rozwi enjoy. I don't know. I didn't mean to raise the question of costs, in all honesty. So I do apologise to all, especially Richard for doing so.

Other people may do it differently, but I do it like this:

1. For the paper, <INSERT CITY NAME>
"Emperor Pedro had such a good time at his banquet, he barfed on his shoes, etc, etc."

<Insert specific orders like host banquet, buy gift that are tied to the paper bits>

That way Richard, can read my stuff, and just cut and paste if it works, and tweak it slightly if he decides to. Minimizes effort for him. Sometime something happens and he needs to re-write slightly.

I do it like Deacon and it does seem to work well. The only tweeking Richard ever seems to do is maybe add in an audience reaction (so you know if a speech I give at the banquet goes well or not).

It would be a bit of fun to read of the Rozwi take on things going on in Europe...upon hearing of the strange antics in distant Spain, you can just imagine what the Great Changamire must say to his nobles (other than "these Europeans are crazy!")

No, its probably just my misinterpreting costs, as I do keep failing to take into account I have to pay the print charge to receive it through the post. Plus, now all charges are clumped together into one account, all costs include my Swashbuckler game. So I'm no doubt wrong in what I said earlier.

Changamire Dombo is too busy at present, and has been since January 1700, really, to write much for the newspaper. Hence why the majority of what I've written are told from the point of view of other Rozwi characters. I'll only ever be commentating on African occurrences, however - and those closer to home, than not.

The only reason it may be( I say again MAY BE) connected to cost is if Richard has to type up a hand written article from a player for the paper, must admit in all the years I have been submitting articles to the paper I haven't noticed a difference in cost, then again I have a fixed ceiling to the turn cost, so MAY BE some of my orders get left out & an article put in never really bothered bout it to be honest.