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Originally Posted by PTTG
In Byrd-1, the United States spent much of the '40s developing claims on Antarctica in the belief that it would prove to be a lucrative and untouched source of minerals and energy. The Soviet Union responded, leading to a race to industrialize the South Pole that went on for the rest of the century.
It was a catastrophic economic boondoggle of truly astonishing proportions. By the time it was done, The US' imperial ambitions were obliterated, and the USSR had collapsed. In the current year of 2013, spaceflight is hardly more advanced than it was in Homeline's '60s, computers are delayed by more than a twenty years, and the gross world economic product is 40% lower than homeline at the time.........
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson
I can see Canada and the Nordic nations being relatively wealthier because the tech developed for Antartica lets them develop more efficiently. It lets Russia develop Siberia more also but that doesn't overcome the overall waste of investment from Antartica. China gets more out of Tibet also which may explain some of the inwardness.
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Yeah, I was thinking that the north pole would be just as militarized as the south, if not more. Alaska's resources have been exploited, as well as a lot of Siberia and Canada. It just turns out to not be worth the investment, in the long run. But at least as much interesting drama is going on up north as down south.
To the folks asking about computers, I'm thinking that all the people who think windows 95 was the pinnacle of OS design and thought they should have just polished and kept that think this world's computers are awesome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer
Culvern basically, gunpowder was discovered early. The late Roman elites begin to see investing in technology as a good thing. Consequently many obscure Roman technologies are more available here. These have both curiosity value on Homeline and can be useful on low tech worlds were discretion is useful.
The local year is 402AD. Gunpowder weapons have changed some battles in favor of the Romans. Several barbarian attacks were averted all together. The local tech level seems to be a blend of TL3 and TL4, probably as Roman technology is simply better distributed.
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Rome is a great candidate to actually make effective use of gunpowder, have a fairly applicable social structure for it. It makes effective use of roman economic and logistical strength, as well as the emphasis on teamwork over heroism, and its really effective against traditional roman formations.
This is a great seed, but I can't see it in the "valuables" thread.