Well I'm glad to know all my work over the past four years has managed to net me a whole two jumps up the economic ladder! :p Oh, one of which we lost when less than a quarter of the Coalition got involved in what was effectively a limited regional war.
But it's totally cool that in that example, the Empire's gone up a whopping six steps in the same time! Wow! I need to get ahold of your stock broker, he must kick some mega-ass, probably throws out one-line references on the assumption of a strong Imperial economy in his threads like it ain't no thang! :D
Just kidding around, I know it's just an abstract representation. Don't have much interest in the argument here but man, that was a cool graph. Maybe you should do one for everyone side to side? Vinda must be rolling in the greyed-in blocks!
I have issue with the default claim that those thousands of planets should contribute exclusivly to the Empire and indeed I believe that much of that undefined territory would fold over, sharing Imperial ties alongside the multitudes.
Note: the Empire was not constructed, it was restructured from an existing goverment. The Empire may well have claimed dominion over thousands of worlds as the heir to the Old Republic but this does not qualifiy it as fact. Many of those planets, not mentioned by the Empire since, would have likely utilized their discretion to assert their own idenity, or rekindle old economys which were sucessful prior to the rise of the Empire but saw ruination due to the harsh mandates of that Regieme.
I still contend that the idea of an epic, Spheres of Influence arc would be a good thing for TRF.
Omnae, when did the conversation turn back to GC's economy?
That being said, here is something to ponder. We moved away from bean counting and people's planets count equalling X meterage to have Y number of ships because that wasn't fun. We went to the idea of "the story is what matters, a good story is more important". Now we are back to bean counting. "Your economy was this compared to our economy, then this, then this, now this, but look, our e-penis is still bigger" and "We went by one brick, then 4 bricks, you did A bricks while J over there did F bricks". Fuck, the title of the thread shows it. "MINE is bigger than yours". But that wasn't what the new rules were made for.
But since we apparently have to get back to bean counting, the rules state that your WRITING is what affects what you have. And GC has, in some RPs, but not all, mentioned the economy and directed attention to that. Now can TNO bring me reference to one RP done JUST for their economy? Or where they have actually talked about improving the economy? Or something? Because that would be what actually increases your economy a lot. And GC has done those. But supposedly our economy only grows by the same amount of little square bricks as yours (oh fun, Brick counting! I'm in kindergarten again). Apparently writing and effort doesn't matter, its WHAT planets you own and bean (sorry BRICK) counting again. If this is new new wave of RPing, NOT storyline, well then why not just bring back the old rules entirely? What was the point of the new rules? Apparently nothing.
Some people can't be realistic with what they have and arguements arise, Its happened since the beggining of Roleplay and will continue till the end. By the way Dolash, the limited regional conflict you mentioned... that wasn't the one you claimed to have pulled entire fleets from across GC space is it?
I expect some kind of recognition on the part of the GC that they cannot sustain this sort of indefinitie military build up and war.
It was continious, unabated military build up that bankruped the Soviet Union (as well as poor economic planning in general, granted, but many credit the nuclear arms race as the biggest contributor). And it is military spending that has so damaged North Korea's economy.
I am not suggesting nor looking for a bean counting policy wherein we assign specific values to planets and need a supercomputer to decide the exact size of our armies. That would be foolish.
And, by that same token, so is Jan's suggestion that I'm trying to make TRF into such a bean-counting faction. That accusation, to me, looks like he does not want to consider the facts.
My biggest issue is that, by and large, GC roleplayers ignore entirely the idea of history or economy. Joren's attack on Bilbringi, if his account is to believed, is made up of the best ships and soldiers from across the Coalition. Despite the fact that two wars have very likely left their military scrambling for good soldiers.
I do not think it is unfair to suggest that, because of the BDE war, the GC is lacking in high quality troops at the moment. Yet when I make mention of that in an IC thread, Joren's response is "oh, actually they're the BEST soldiers EVER, and they're PRETENDING to be bad".
There's absolutely no acknowledgment of the costs of war. It's just assumed that the GC has an endless supply of super amazing soldiers to fight all their many battles.
And for a community where our single rule is "realism", there seems to be a lot of hostility towards me when I point out this lack of realism (which could be construed as a breach of the single rule). And I wonder why. A lot of it comes from people partial to the GC, and very little of it actually has any merit. With the exception of Corise, the responses have been "you're trying to make TRF too numbers based" (untrue) and "you're a dick" (true).
Whether or not TRF as a community will push the GC to operate on a more realistic level I don't know, but I doubt. Because, it seems, the GC is exempt from explaining itself and the rules do not need apply.
Yet when it comes to TNO, which realistically should and does (imo) have a sort of "sphere of influence", we take flak because it's "unfair".
Which suggests to me that the realism "rule" is just a word, which means nothing. The GC is allowed to operate unrealistically, and TNO is not allowed to operate realistically.
So, what's the deal? Are we actually going to make an effort to play with some sense of realism, or not? Or do we pick and chose when it applies, in order to screw TNO?
