One Ruler on Earth: FAQ / Q&A

[Metal.Pigeon]

FAQ:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Q: The campaign is all crashy and buggy and weird and stuff. Why?
A: It isn't ready yet; the map is being made from scratch. There will be a big announcement when it's playable.

Q: Why 1204?
A: A 13th century start date was set in stone, and we picked 1204 because of several reasons. The most obvious is that it's immediately after the Fourth Crusade, giving the Romans a challenging campaign at a critical turning point in their history. It's also just a few years before the Mongols are being united under Genghis Khan, which would change the world forever. Additionally, we wanted to be able to incorporate factions like the Mongols, Malians, and Incas in a historically accurate manner that would not be possible with an earlier date, such as 1080.

Q: Why is one of the custom battle eras called "DO NOT SELECT!"?
A: This is the "All" period with a new name. Due to hardcoded limits, if a faction has more than 200 units available in custom battles, the game will crash. This is inevitable when picking "All" periods due to how many mercenaries there are and because an AOR system is planned.

Q: Can you add X faction or get rid of Y faction?
A: We are at the hardcoded faction limit, and with the mod so late in development, we will not be changing any of the factions we have picked. Even the factions that do not have a playable roster implemented yet are blueprinted, and extensive research has already been conducted for the campaign side of things. Yes, that means that Dai Viet is staying.

Q: Why two Chinese and two Indian factions?
A: Because these factions were at odds with each other and are so different culturally, militarily, and politically, it didn't make sense to have a single blanket faction for these huge regions. The Chinese Empire faction represents the native Han dynasties (Song and Ming), while the Great Jin represents all the Jurchen dynasties, including the Qing who are very significant for being the last imperial dynasty of China. In India, leaving out either the Muslim sultanates or the Hindu kingdoms would also be a disservice to the history and struggles of this region.

Q: Can we get translated unit names?
A: Yes, but because of how the text files are set up, it will only become an option when the mod is officially released (i.e. not for the betas).

Q: Do I have permission to use stuff here in my mod?
A: Yes, just send me a PM just in case there are other attributions necessary. If I am to disappear for 3 or more months, do whatever you want.

If anyone else has questions not addressed in this post, this thread will double up as Q&A. Feel free to leave them in this thread and I will do my best to respond.

[Metal.Pigeon]

Reserved (just in case)

[alhoon]

Can we get a preview of the map regions, or at least a rough number for settlements in each continent / part? How many in china, Japan, India, etc.

How long would each turn be? Two years per turn? 1 1/2 years per turn?

[Metal.Pigeon]

Can we get a preview of the map regions, or at least a rough number for settlements in each continent / part? How many in china, Japan, India, etc.

How long would each turn be? Two years per turn? 1 1/2 years per turn?

The campaign map isn't game-ready yet, but here's what our terrain map looks like:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

"I'll explode if I have to add Alaska. In a bad way." -TheVarangian

As for regions, we're still finalizing them. I will note that we are planning to incorporate the Engine Overhaul Project, which will allow us to have more than 199 settlements. The caveat is that those "extra" settlements will not count towards victory conditions or diplomacy, as they aren't separate regions.

Our campaign will be made with 1 turn per year in mind, and with a start date of 1204 and an end date in the 1600s, that should be at least 400 turns. We can increase the lifespans of characters (likely to the 70s) so they won't die too quickly.

[alhoon]

More than 199 settlements? That is very interesting. Any ball-park to about how many you plan to have? For example, how many in the Indian subcontinent or how many for China?

Since the limit is 30 factions, will there be "mechanics" for colony-like structures, that give a lot of law bonus to overcome distance and cultural penalties but allow only slower growth etc?

Will there be different starting time options for different eras? Like start at 1204 / 1300 / 1453 etc?

[Metal.Pigeon]

More than 199 settlements? That is very interesting. Any ball-park to about how many you plan to have? For example, how many in the Indian subcontinent or how many for China?

Since the limit is 30 factions, will there be "mechanics" for colony-like structures, that give a lot of law bonus to overcome distance and cultural penalties but allow only slower growth etc?

Will there be different starting time options for different eras? Like start at 1204 / 1300 / 1453 etc?

The workaround essentially converts forts into settlements, with their own income, population, tax rates, and buildings. With that in mind, here's our current region distribution (subject to change as we finish sorting out which settlements don't "need" their own region):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Europe & Western Steppes: ≈45
Middle East & India: ≈50
Central, Southeast, & East Asia: ≈50
Africa: ≈20
Americas: ≈30
Oceania: ≈4

We do not currently have plans for EBII-style administration and are leaning more towards the style of a "vanilla plus" or Stainless Steel, though there are plenty of new buildings planned. I'll pass on the idea to the team.

Different start dates aren't really on the table for a couple reasons. The main one is the extra work, since we've committed very hard to the 1204 start date from historical figures, events, and unit visuals. It would also be hard to justify being able to add some factions in any start date after the split of the Mongol Empire. We have a few factions that represent multiple dynasties, like Persia (Khwarezmians and Safavids), China (Song and Ming), and the Jurchens (Jin, Later Jin, and Qing) with periods of "non-existence" that make them unviable to include in a 14th or 15th century campaign. So we would either have to include each of the four khanates (which will shaft a few cultures and impact faction variety) or create new factions from scratch. At the very least, I don't want anyone to expect a 1518 submod or the multiple campaigns from Eras here, since I can't promise we'll do that.