DescriptionIntroduction 19th Century - War between the States is a game firmly rooted in the middle of the 19th Century world. Although it is planned to be a Persistent Browser Based Game in later stages (thus negating the need for any installations of additional software in order to play), it sees itself as a historic MMORPG-Simulation. At the moment it is only forum based and very basic, drawing heavily from a pen and paper heritage, though new features are added as they are devised. 19th Century - War between the States is going to be programmed and run entirely by volunteers, thus playing is and will always be free of any charge. Hence there are going to be no monthly fees and there will be no premium features that are restricted to players who register a paid account - to put it simply: it's a free MMORPG, period.
The game is player driven, thus all roles you can imagine - from the President of the United States, to Brigade Commander of a Confederate infantry unit, down to plantation or factory owner - are open for player characters. Due to the fact that there will be presidential and senatorial elections that are held periodically the threat for faction members having to endure bad or inactive main faction leaders will be minimized, since only the good and active ones will be reelected (this is a huge contrast to almost all other RPGs and MMORPGs where main faction leaders and their toadies hold the reins regardless of their activity or their treatment of members). As you can see there are many features that keeps the game afloat, since in addition to land- and sea-based combat as well as the political layer the player driven economy offers countless of options to farm, mine, produce items, trade or found cities and construct facilities as well as a multitude of assets.
Any new player can create their individual character selecting from various skills, ethnic groups and place of birth. After that they can join an existing faction and pick up any of a number of professions and later, if they have enough money, they might even found their own company if they wish to do so.
There are thousands of square miles of country that can be explored and colonized. Player characters can own their own buildings, items, ships, vehicles, mounts, farms, factories or even companies. At the same time player groups ("factions") can be owners of pretty much anything as well - thus setting 19th Century - War between the States apart from alliances and guilds in many similar game genres.
19th Century - War between the States offers many roles to choose from and thus allows the player not only to live their own dream of being whatever they want in a 19th century world, but also to adapt the game to their favored style of play: playing the game as an adventure game, a strategy game, a business or political simulation, or just enjoying the lively community of like minded gamers, history buffs and American Civil War fans.
Despite the huge and ever growing number of available MMORPGs 19th Century - War between the States is unique both in it's dimensions and the historic setting as well. It's main goal is to portray the political, sociological, economical and military situation in the United States during the War of Secession (a.k.a. American Civil War) from 1861-1865. It gives the players the possibility to delve into this historic period and experience the chores of this time, with a split up nation in turmoil, with their characters. While the game portrays the Civil War period it doesn't follow the wars historic course - it uses an alternative timeline, with the secession being only the starting point. Therefore it's outcome isn't set in stone. It might well be that the Confederate States win their independence this time, but can they hang on to it? Also one should take note that the game will not leave the 19th Century setting - so we will not advance technologically beyond the 1860s. Therefore any R&D (research and development) will take this fact into account and be adapted accordingly.
As mentioned above the virtual world of 19th Century - War between the States will be devised as a persistent world, meaning it will continue to exist even when you log out of the game. Like in the real world most of your actions will affect all players and non-player- characters (NPCs) present in the game (f.e.: A Confederate cavalry unit on a raid in enemy territory burns a bridge over a river to loose a pursuing Union cavalry unit. Thus this bridge will appear as "destroyed" for all players and all NPCs and can't be used by anyone to cross the river until it has been repaired or rebuild).
As long as things are at forum stage the time factor is not really a problem since RP postings are usually done once a week (depending on the moderator and the level of action), later things will be played out in "delayed real time". What does this mean? Well, this means each action consumes a certain amount of time like it does in real life. For example when you decide to travel from one city to the next you will be told how many days and hours the journey will last (depending on which means of travel you use it will be longer or shorter). These will be real days and real hours (10 hours and 12 minutes in "19th Century - War between the States" equal 10 hours and 12 minutes in real life)! So far so good. To solve the problem of time differences between our players around the world, a time delay will be added so some actions (primarily to those of an aggressive nature) so they will last longer (a few hours) than they do in real life (a few seconds). This will allow the other players to react to events happening to them while they are not online. For example: Player A (from Australia) challenges Player B (from Canada) to duel. Due to the time difference Player A would have an advantage since his time zone is about 10 hours before that of Player B - but in adding a delay we give Player B the chance to react to the attack, thus evening out the odds.
Features: 19th Century based economy 19th Century based political system 19th Century based society 19th Century based R&D 19th Century based combat & military tactics - for both land and naval warfare |
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Greg Lindahl