House Production Strategy
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:16 am
This discussion actually started in the autododge thread, but it definitely deserves it's own topic.
So on page 66 of Splicers, we have the OCC breakdown of Great House of the Barren Marsh. It presents a picture where as much as 66% of the population are combatants. This sort population distribution would be impossible in the real world since that leaves too few to work the fields and run the economy, but this can actually work in Splicers since the population is fed via bio-tech creations (described on p67) and, there is little industry to speak of that needs to be preserved.
However, without knowing the attrition rates of biotics vs warmounts, for instance, we can't tell how the ratio of biotics to warmounts is the result of careful planning vs how much is due to the enhanced survivability of one over the other, so I think it is a mistake to naively assume that that balance shown on p66 is actually the balance desired by the Warlord and his advisors.
This isn't mentioned in Splicers that I'm aware of, but each house must have a finite capacity for building units and each unit must have a cost associated with it even if it's only the time it takes to create it. It's tempting to measure that in Bio-E, but since we have no idea what the base cost for a biotic, host armor, or the various war mounts are, only the enhancement cost, there's no way to do a real analysis of how to "optimally" balance the house production capabilities.
We also don't know the ratio of men vs women in the house, so it's hard to know what kind of population growth is possible.
But I only have the Splicers book, so if any of this is addressed in other published material, there may still be room for meaningful discussion. Heck, even if there's not, we can still speculate.
--flatline
So on page 66 of Splicers, we have the OCC breakdown of Great House of the Barren Marsh. It presents a picture where as much as 66% of the population are combatants. This sort population distribution would be impossible in the real world since that leaves too few to work the fields and run the economy, but this can actually work in Splicers since the population is fed via bio-tech creations (described on p67) and, there is little industry to speak of that needs to be preserved.
However, without knowing the attrition rates of biotics vs warmounts, for instance, we can't tell how the ratio of biotics to warmounts is the result of careful planning vs how much is due to the enhanced survivability of one over the other, so I think it is a mistake to naively assume that that balance shown on p66 is actually the balance desired by the Warlord and his advisors.
This isn't mentioned in Splicers that I'm aware of, but each house must have a finite capacity for building units and each unit must have a cost associated with it even if it's only the time it takes to create it. It's tempting to measure that in Bio-E, but since we have no idea what the base cost for a biotic, host armor, or the various war mounts are, only the enhancement cost, there's no way to do a real analysis of how to "optimally" balance the house production capabilities.
We also don't know the ratio of men vs women in the house, so it's hard to know what kind of population growth is possible.
But I only have the Splicers book, so if any of this is addressed in other published material, there may still be room for meaningful discussion. Heck, even if there's not, we can still speculate.
--flatline
), just... don't hold your breath.