Friday, May 5, 2017

WfS ~ Ooredoo and Tech-6

At last, I'm ready to start forward again.  I'm going to be introducing a new region, Pangaran, that is tech-6. The first step is to identify Pangaran's relationship with Jawanda, as we want our world to fit together. Therefore, we start with this map:

Depicted: 18-mile hexes

I have reduced the scale of the above map to 18 miles per hex, in order to create a 90-mile separation between Ooredoo, an island at the edge of Pangaran, and Jawanda.  Thus the island is marginally close enough for a dangerous journey in a fishing boat, which we presume our party of fighters will try to accomplish, bringing them to this new place.

[as an aside, I have made the decision not to attach intelligence to tech levels after all.  I know this is something I discussed back with the first implementation of the system, but after all this is a learning experience.  I know some will miss this note, it was meant to be included in the last post, but I'm remembering to add it now]

I've made only a rough drawing of Ooredoo above.  I have a more detailed version in 6-mile hexes to present; I could have updated the map above with the map below, but I felt at this point it was a detail that wasn't really necessary.  The important point here is the distance between the two places.

Here is a 6-mile hex map of Ooredoo:

Depicted: 6-mile hexes

My goal here is to depict familiar hex-types as they manifest around tech-6.  The deserts have become dry, unproductive rifts and sinks, which still offer the potential of meeting monsters in the hills and back country, but which have little influence on the island's infrastructure apart from inconvenience.

I have also divided the island into two terrains.  On the west, a flat watered plain, with a base supply of 2 food.  Should I start describing that as '11' food? To emphasize I'm referring to the number of 1s in the expression and NOT the number of food?  This seems to be really confusing some people.

On the east, we have a dry hill-plain, hardly better than the best lands in the previous desert culture, with 1 food and 1 hammer per hex.  The type-7 hex around Sayur has precisely the same productivity that Ai had in Jawanda (our starting hex).

But does it?  Unlike Ai, Sayur produces cereals, vegetables and at least one type of livestock: goats, sheep or swine.  Reindeer is pretty much out, as this is still close to the tropics.  See the link for where I'm getting this from.  We can further identify these things, if we want, by defining cereals as maize, vegetables as sweet potatoes and even a specific kind of goat, sheep or swine ~ but the point is that the small amount of food production in Sayur comes from these things and NOT from hunting and gathering.

How is this different?  Well, archery is now a skill set that the locals have, so the population is likely to defend itself with bows rather than spears.  If attacked, an inhabitant of Sayur will likely run away, then return later with bow and try to chop the party down one by one from a distance.  This is a new mind-set.

As well, Pangaran in general has no religion.  They've abandoned mysticism, so they are largely a pragmatic sort, much like one would expect of frontier settlers.  These are hardened, rugged individualists, living more in families than in clans, as there is less need to depend on others in order to eat.  We defend better and our food supply is more secure and diversified, so we can afford to be in it for our personal gain.

Moving on to the type-6 hex surrounding Qimo and Raya Pos, we have again the same relationship as Bodo and Cai in Jawanda . . . except that now the increase in food supply creates the existence of fruit trees, which will be scattered along the heights above the sea, where they can catch the morning dew.  Both the cereals in Sayur and the fruit in Qimo enables fermentation, so drinking now becomes a thing to do.  Drinking brings the option of intoxication as well as other social problems.  Qimo does remain a transshipment point, like Eom and Guba before it, but now it has more interesting things to ship.

Turning to the other end of the island, the type-6 and better hexes produce a great deal of food: 111 food, so that instead of merely a large settlement, we have made villages of Tangarang, Umar and Vekasi.  The latter two of these, however, lack hammers altogether.  Obviously, this means the table I posted earlier today and which I have already linked with this post will need an adjustment (learning process), as these can't be "nomadic hunting and gathering" cultures.  I will adjust "subsistence farming" from 1 hammer to 0 hammers, fixing that hole.

The lack of hammers would indicate no animals, but we still have plenty of cereals, vegetables and fruits to supply a food source.  The population of Umar and Vekasi, both of which produce coins, is at least able to exchange food for bare necessities, such as the most simple of weapons, skins and the occasional maintenance of objects they have to pay to replace.  Life for these people is very primitive, but in a very different way that Jawanda: there are lots of people surrounding these two villages, 400-1000.  That's more than probably the whole region of Jawanda.

Tangarang is a little better off.  It has one hammer, gained from becoming type-5: but there is a lot of pressure put on that single hammer, so we can assume that a lot of extra goods must be brought in from outside to support the needs of all of West Ooredoo.  Still, none of these people are starving.  They are just living very simple lives.

For the time being, I think that covers it.  I'll make some rolls and determine that we have 1,301 persons in Ooredoo, in an area of about 12.3 hexes: about 105 persons per 6-mile hex.  This is much higher than the maximum should be for tech-6, which is around 49 per hex.  But Ooredoo is just a part of a larger region, so we can offset the density by adding additional hexes elsewhere.

I'll be taking a break from this for a bit, not producing another post tomorrow.  I have a general idea what to do next, but I want to contemplate that a bit, and see how this one plays.

6 comments:

  1. I'm very interested to see where this will lead !

    You said that Ooredoo have too high a population density for its Tech Level of 6, and that you'll solve this by adding additional hexes somewhere else.

    I see the logic, but if Ooredoo would be Tech 7 by virtue of its pop. density "as is", and is Tech 6 only by virtue of additional Hexes, then the razing / killing / pillaging of the other Hexes (removing them from its territory) would increase the Tech Level (according to the density rule), nyet ?

    Of course, the Tech Level logic is more complex than that, but I'm curious ...

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  2. Vlad,

    I could have started with the largest city in the region; that would have had an even higher person per hex density . . . but density alone does not make a tech level. The WHOLE region has to be taken into account; since I am not considering the island of Ooredoo as an isolated entity, its overall advantages are compromised by the larger area of which it is a part.

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  3. Hello,

    I hope I don't have missed something (I'm on my phone so I can't check as well), but what makes a tech level then ?

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  4. We're making a presumption about what fits a tech level on one principle:

    If the territory is densely populated, then the tech level is higher. Territories that are sparsely populated will have a low tech level.

    Since this is a calculation of population/area, we can adjust the density either for a tech-6 culture either by eradicating population or increasing area. I can make Ooredoo less populated by simply shrinking the productive area by a hex, getting rid of one of the type-6 hexes. OR, I can add hexes elsewhere, to make the density come out as we want.

    If we increase the density past a certain threshold, then the territory becomes appropriate for additional techs like an organized religion, efficient, centralized granaries and practical metalworking.

    Our presumption with the tech-6 culture is NOT that the people don't know how to do these things, but that either a) they are socially resentful of organization, of religion or otherwise; b) that they lack the funds and expertise to build large communal structures; or c) capital to expand the region's resources is better spent in other, denser, more lucrative territories.

    For example, Sierra Leone produces a lot of diamonds, but it is easier and more practical for diamond merchants to ship them to Europe to be processed and cut rather than build gemcutting centres in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown; partly because Sierra Leone is unstable, but also because the experts would rather live in Amsterdam and Antwerp than in the third world. Obviously, the gemcutting COULD be done in Sierra Leone ~ it's not a knowledge problem. But the fact that they are not built there contributes to Sierra Leone remaining a backwardly technological region. Understand?

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  5. Hello Alexis,

    I took the weekend off, sorry for the delay.

    I understand the presumption of density / tech level, as well as the difference included between "knowing" a tech and "using" a tech (wether by one's own volition, or because of outside "motivations").

    You said, in your 1st comment, "density alone doesn't make a tech level". From your 2nd comment, I deduce that Tech Level is Density + Inside/Outside parameters that may force the Tech Level up or down.
    For example, your Ooredoo island would be Tech Level 7 by itself, but a desire to expand outside make the "colonization effort" (i.e. the "weight" of those outside hexes) Tech 6. If it was an insular nation with a higher priority on inside developpment, it'd be Tech 7 without (as of yet) an outside colony.

    Would that be a correct analysis of your answer, or did I miss something ?

    I wish not to troll, but to understand - I have plans to use your Tech Levels in a world-generation kind of way, if I can, so I'd like to understand as much as I can.

    In the hope of reading more of it, good day !

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  6. Hi Vlad. Trust me, never took you for a troll. You're far too consistent for that and you don't ask me questions upon questions upon questions that are disconnected in their design. You're always going somewhere.

    You have the idea exactly right, near as I can tell.

    ReplyDelete

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