Playing with a Cold War-esque game idea

Game Development Writing and Content
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@idonotlikeusernames you keep on insisting in giving me work, hum? Just kidding, bro, glad to help however I can, even if I am living through a chronic lack of time kind of period.

Yep, pretty much. Imagine this… Instead of Colombo (probably Portuguese, there is plenty proof of it) offering his services to the Kings of Spain (was it a plot by the Portuguese crown? A consequence of portuguese crown’s insistence that the path to India was through the cape of good hope?) he persuaded the Portuguese Crown to give him the resources to organize an expedition towards West… And Portugal has now an island in the Caribbean!

After that, you could make history evolve at its normal course. Portugal understood that America wasn’t India and continued with its normal pathway to India, with Vasco da Gama finally finding a way in the last years of the XV century. So, the treaty of Tordesillas was signed as in the “real” history, with the small difference of Portugal receiving the right to keep the Island already occupied by it. Heck, you might even get creative and put it as a trade for the Canary Islands. Spain got Canary Islands and Portugal got the Island you want to write about.

Yeah, I can try to help out if needed with the Cold War and the Portuguese colonial issues, Salazar and fascism. Gald to help.

And besides, our colonial history is slightly different from most countries’ colonial history (every country’s colonial history is different, obviously). The island, if populated by natives before Portuguese presence, would certainly keep them during and after our presence there. Spanish went on to conquer their territories, we were traders that ended up colonizing the places, mostly for its resources and wealth.

Please note that I haven’t checked what your idea is about, so my input is being delivered in a very improvisational manner. Do you want the island to be part of the Portuguese Empire at that time? Fully independent? Some form of autonomy?

The different scenarios would give you different things to work with. If you have it independent, you can work it however you want, it’s just a difference in culture and history, with a bigger presence of native peoples, and a traditionally less interventionist empire, even if with the “State” or the “Crown” traditionally holding a big chunk of power and an intimate relationship with the established elites and businesses.

If it is fully integrated in the Empire, not suffering from the wave of independences that shook the Americans during the XIX century, you would have the opportunity to deal with the presence of a pro-independence movement in place long before the start of the Colonial Wars. And you would have fascism and the special kind of capitalism Salazar and the Estado Novo promoted.

If you want it to be autonomous, you could get the best of both worlds, with a Fascist government and its imperialist and unity dreams crushing the past autonomy of the region, especially after the start of the Colonial Wars elsewhere, and a bigger degree of customization of the Island’s structures, elites and traditions.

Just some ideas :stuck_out_tongue:

Btw, you could even put it right after the Carnation Revolution, with the US invasion of the place or theirs plans to do it because of the “scary communists” taking over the country, nationalizing part of the economy in order to destroy the regime’s bastion of power, giving freedom to the colonies and so on. Heck, the US had plans to invade Portugal after the Carnation Revolution, and another parallel plan of taking over Azores and declare its independence (because of the military base they have there since WW2 or something like that), there are records of conversations of the US’s executive and military branches with Kissinger saying so. Fun stuff.

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Surely it may be a good idea.
But I would like to see a good democratic ending as another “true” ending.
Also, I think that players should be able to establish the system of ministers, courts and parliaments.

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What is the roadmap for the development of this game?

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Honestly? I don’t really have a “roadmap” per say, but if I haven’t started writing by April, I’ll be very much surprised. I’m really trying to get some suggestions and support before committing though.

Also, I’m having some trouble with the writing program, so I’ve got to solve that first before making any decisions, but I am anxious to start, but I’d like to know what I’m doing first. :smile:

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This guide may be useful.
https://retowers.neocities.org/CSGuide/CSGuide.html

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Would media go under “popular support” and “external support” (if other countries choose to promote their own propaganda)? How important of a role is media going to play?

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Media will play a fairly integral part. But you won’t be able to directly control it, unless you choose to nationalize the entire media system and use it for propaganda. It’ll really play the part you give it, which could be anywhere from your entire regime or just a quick sidenote of a footer.

Media itself won’t go under any specific support system, as all of the groups will have their own media, whether that’s a “Free Peoples’ Radio” or a foreign newspaper, each group will have their own way of getting their opinions and goals out to the general public. But you’ll get to choose what media stays and what goes, so if you want to play as a Communist, you’ll probably ban the Industrialist and foreign papers, while leaving your popular support and possibly military newspapers open.

But be careful! If you shut down too much of the media, you’ll end up with protests calling for freer media and more journalistic support. Which could be a starting point for another revolution.

In short, if you play as a dictator, you’ll be able to use it to spread your goals, but if you’re going for a more open and free state, you’ll have to leave it alone, which means it’ll be an influencing factor on your politics.

What I mean by, “the Netherlands were part of my inspiration for the tourism-style island,” is more towards modern day, rather than the colonial era. This wouldn’t take effect until the epilogue, where your island, Las Vegas, and the Netherlands would be in direct competition with each other as the “best place to visit.”

You honestly would be more like Havana, Cuba during the actual game than the Netherlands. I was just using it as an example. Plus, I too like the idea of having a very “legalized” island paradise full of debauchery and vice.

I am aware that the Dutch were very conservative during the Colonial era, and that would show on your island, but just for fun, I’d like to put that as an option. You’d probably have a very Catholic or religious background and would have a very strong presence of conservative landowners.

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What kind of country is specifically assumed as a very democratic country?

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@RedNovember

Will it be possible to have Sir Humprey attitude to unfriendly media ? such as supply of paper unfortunately being low at the moment so you get only little bit pay no mind to the fact that others newspapers got way more etc.

Same with subsidues etc.

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By a “very democratic country” I mean the former Allies, with extensions to the Benelux region, Italy, and possibly others… For the time period, I am generalizing a little bit, but it would be the USA, Britain, France, and possibly West Germany. I can’t write every single country that was a democracy back then, so I’m trying to choose the highlights of the time. And vice versa, very “communist” countries would be the USSR, East Germany, Chinese Communists, and possible Poland (And yes, I do understand that Poland was annexed by the USSR before the war and just ended up in their hands afterwards and wasn’t really “communist” but for sake of argument, there it is.)

It’ll really depend on your policies, American immigrants will love tax havens, lots of military spending, and anti-communist views, while British may like more cultural spending, foreign import/export focuses, and good relations with the Commonwealth at large. For the Communists, the USSR immigrants may like heavily industrialization nations, lots of military spending, and cultural spending. While Chinese communists may like a less industrialized nation and more agrarian spending and less cultural besides their own. (And yes, there will be options to create a “chinatown” on your island."

Again, I really am just trying to hit the highlights of the time, so I’d like to keep specific countries to those really mentioned in the history books. At least for the actual writing, you’ll get the option to choose many, many countries of origin in the Character customization. This is something I really want to stress, the Character customization will be as in-depth as I can possibly make it without going way too far in regards to the actual writing.

Again though, everything I say here is liable to be changed or tweaked, so it may not be this way when I actually write it.

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@CaesarCzech
Yes! This is definitely something I’m working out. My goal is to make this an option on controlling the media at large, in addition to heavier taxes on certain newspapers/radio stations, certain limitations on what can be published, and the overall content papers can put out. There is also a possiblity of you creating an “official government-sanctioned” newspaper/radio station. But I’m going to have to tweak it a good deal before it can actually be confirmed.

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can their be political parties like the united states like republicans and democrats ( I am a heavy conservative republican myself.)

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Unfortunately, I’m probably not going to make that a part of the game, as your character is supposed to have their own political party already by the time the game starts. It’ll be dependent on how you gained power as well, so it simply wouldn’t work out.

A few reasons for this is as the Dictator of your own island nation, you’ll probably have your own political party. But what that party’s views are will be up to you. You’ll get the chance to really sculpt your party’s agenda, so if you want to play to your personal views, you’ll be able to. But I can’t really say that you could use an existing party because they’d probably already have their own candidate for holding the Dictatorship, so thematically, it doesn’t make sense. Especially if you come into power via a revolution, it just doesn’t make sense.

But thanks for asking! I appreciate the question!

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Does this game have technological development elements?
If so, what kind of technology can you develop?

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Specifically, what kind of hate crime is there and what type of punishment can you impose against it?

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If we get the option to be a former Dutch Pacific possession there probably already is one. A more likely question would probably be how many Nationalist Chinese refugees we want to or can admit without coming into conflict with our more indigenous, nativist nationalists and the conservative landowners.

If you do put it in I think my mc would prefer the media to focus on vapid entertainment and celebrity/ foreign royalty gossip, rather than local, investigative journalism. Gives the illusion of a reasonably “free” press without most of the difficulties of it and avoids Stalinist style censorship.

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As much as I’d like to put technological developments in, I think that won’t be part of the game. As I’d like to keep this as more of a government simulator/Cold War story.

If your country is located near South America, you may have former German officials and their supporters on your island, which could lead to small Nazi communities creating hate-crimes against their traditional enemies. In addition to that, if you have a very anti-communist island, you could end up having something resembling the Red Scare of the USA or even worse. I won’t be putting Racism in this game, as it is based in the 1980’s so it is after the Civil Rights movement in America. (Also, the rest of the world had already had a Civil rights movement before America, so it doesn’t make sense for you to not have dealt with it already.)

I am a little undereducated on the Dutch colonial holdings, so that is something I’ll have to research before I can give any specific answer towards, but I do appreciate you telling me, as it points out an area that I must do further research in.

Regarding the Chinese nationalists, this will be a consideration if you are based in the Pacific or Indonesian areas, but otherwise, it won’t be a concern, as if you’re based near South America or the Caribbean, you’ll probably have former Third Reich officers and refugees fleeing to your island.

This will definitely be a possibility! But again, it’ll really depend on what I can do with the writing part of it; I would really like to see this as an option, and I probably will put it in no matter what, but I can’t really say for sure what will make it into the final version of the game, as I am still unfamiliar with what can and cannot be put into a CoG hosted game. (Which is a concern of mine that I may get flagged for some “triggering” topics when I do write this thing.)

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Keep the questions coming! I’m getting some really good feedback on what people think of this! I hope y’all are liking the idea so far!

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So I was going through some of the comments and I realized that there were a few people who had some really good ideas and I didn’t see them! So I’m going to write a reply to each of y’all so I can address your ideas and concerns! Sorry it took me so long to do this in the first place!

Dagnabit man. That was a lot! But to put things simply, your island is supposed to become independent around the same time that the Commonwealth broke up, (i.e. India becoming free, Israel being created, Syria being freed,) but your island wasn’t technically freed until the late 60’s, where a president, not unlike Fulgencio Bastista, took power and drove the island into the ground. That’s how your PC comes to power, via some way, i.e. revolution, external influences, or industrialized payoffs. This gives the PC a believable way to take power and let’s the player choose how they want their island run.

When I start writing, there’ll be a detailed history for you to read that explains most of this.

Once again, I’m so sorry it took me this long to reply!!

But yes, I believe I explained this in part in one of my other replies. But I’m trying to keep some things secret, as I don’t want to give away everything quite yet, eh? :smiley:

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I believe I got everyone who’s offered a suggestion so far, but if not, let me know and I’ll try to get back to you!

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Ok, if you want to make it realistic, that could be done, but in a way that would need to respect the following realities:

  • Estado Novo would never in a million years accept the independence of a possession of the empire without war, they were agressively defensive about their empire. Some foreign pressure will be needed (the US may intervene in the 50s, promoting some kind of deal between the independentists and Portugal… The official but not so real independence)
  • The Cold War needs to be taken under consideration. The Fulgêncio Batista kind of dictator would necessarily need to have the support of the US, otherwise the US would never allow a island close to them go into such a radical change as is independence.
  • The late 60s would make real independence even harder. Portugal was head deep in a colonial war which lasted almost 15 years, caused a wave of emigration to other European countries and effectively killed the regime. They would never allow such a change without US intervention. You might make the Batista’s rise to power a consequence of the growing inability of Portugal to de facto control the island against USSR sponsored guerrillas. So, the US picks a local high general and makes him the first leader of the now trully independent island. Portugal accepts it without war with Batista because the US vows to support Portuguese military effort in Africa, or something.

You know, if you want to, next week I can create a chronology to it with historical realism. You don’t need to follow it, can just use it as a starting point or something. If I find the time, I can do it. If not, feel free to borrow ideas from the unorganized topics above, or not :wink:

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Specifically, what kind of power background can you select?

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Howdy folks, I know it’s been about a month since I last posted, hopefully y’all can forgive me for that, the holidays are a wacky time for everyone, but I just wanted to give a quick update here so people don’t think I’ve completely abandoned you. :grin:

Let me start by saying that no notable progress has been made as of yet, I’m struggling with the technical aspect of things and have gone to a couple of friends who said they’ll get me set up soon. So my goal is to have a demo at some point either by the beginning of the summer or mid-July. Barring that, I’ll let people know of any changes to the “schedule.” Which is subject to change, mind you.

I also have done a little work on the actual content, but going forward, I’m going to keep things a little more secret, just to preserve the fun for people finding it out. Obviously, some of the ideas in the posts above will still be implemented, but I can’t guarantee what will make the cut. I also got permission from one of my favorite Authors to put a little Easter egg in the game, so keep your eyes peeled for that, if I can get my demo out in time.

I also didn’t respond to a couple of comments and I apologize for that guys! I personally blame the holidays and laziness on my part, so I’m sorry about that. I’ll go ahead and address those comments in this post.

I appreciate the offer! I may take you up on that at some point in development, but I will ask you guys to suspend your disbelief to a certain degree, mostly because if I wrote with complete historical accuracy, I’d be writing for years. :smile:

But I will try to address as much of that as I can when and if I get my demo out.

I believe I addressed this in an earlier post, but I’m happy to repeat myself.

Each of the ways you seize control of the island will go with one of the governmental categories; the popular support may be a Castro-style revolution, the Military may put you in power as a puppet (which could lead to other problems for your regime.) Both of these choices would lead to you having some type of militaristic background, which would affect your leadership.

Industrial support may be you simply bought your way into power or were supported by some major company on the island (Due to copyright problems, I couldn’t actually reference real-world companies.)

Criminal support may be a more brutal takeover of the government or maybe they simply paid off enough people to get a sympathizer in the local government. They’d probably have a hands-off style when it came to dealing with you, but you’d have to work with/for them if you wanted to stay in power.

Foreign or External support would be an external country trying to create a sympathetic government, which could be for any number of reason. You may get to choose what government backed your ascension to power, which would also affect your governing. Obviously, countries like Brazil or Somalia would be ridiculous, but France, Britain, the USSR, or the USA would all be viable choices.

Hopefully y’all can forgive me for being absent for so long, but I’m definitely going to be working on this when I can and will be paying close attention to this forum, so if you have any comments or concerns, let me know here or PM me!

Note to the Moderators.
Hopefully I’m not breaking any rules with this reply, I am aware that it’s in bad taste to reply on a forum that’s been quite for a while, (I did ignore this slightly since it’s my post,) but if I am breaking some rules or committing a faux pas in the eyes of the forum, just hit me up here or PM me and I’m happy to comply with anything y’all need.

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