The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games • Hacker News Board

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#241

Post by b0rsuk » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

thom wrote: post #223

Brendinooo wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always figured that game makers didn't do this because it wouldn't actually be fun to play with. Reminds me of when I played Medieval: Total War and spent most of my time dealing with uprisings. Like, do we want to deal with regulation bloat that causes greater infrastructure costs, so you have to pay billions to build a big road or whatever? Can you account for a Whiskey Rebellion sort of scenario in a SimCity sor…

I find that there are games that transition from low to high complexity over time, and I often dislike it, for example in Crusader Kings. I always love the early part of the game where I'm looking out for my family, building nice stuff in my domain, earning money, murdering siblings etc. Life is simple. I absolutely hate when you (either deliberately or by accident) end up in charge of a large kingdom or empire and s…

Many strategy games do scaling badly. You micromanage at first, but then your kingdom grows and you're supposed to use the same tools to manage much more. Real life doesn't work like that. If you go up in hierarchy, you generally delegate tasks. Time is not made out of rubber. Real life is not turn-based. You can't take as much time as you want planning your next move.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#242

Post by b0rsuk » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

at_a_remove wrote: post #136

cperciva wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bizarrely, a town of less than four thousand people actually has an assassins' guild, with roughly ten members. Do they take turns, each assassinating one person a year? The charitable interpretation might be that, in addition to being responsible for assassinations in the town, the guild is also responsible for assassinations in the surrounding countryside; in medieval times the rural population significantly outnum…

Well, Raise Dead is pretty pricey. And face it, nobody is out there paying to assassinate farmers. If you really want a particular farmer dead, ask some of the nearby lizardfolk to do it for a song. Farmers are really interesting in the tax records, at least a function of property. They're the plankton of feudal society: necessary but otherwise nobody pays much attention to them. The miserable hamlets of D&D have an…

Those with associates willing to pay for Raise Dead would be VIPs - prime targets for assassination.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#243

Post by b0rsuk » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 8:00 PM UTC

Rd6n6 wrote: post #21

I’m actually beginning some informal research on 17th century Europe for a small game right now. There are some village life and village builder aspects. It’s the beginning of the “modern” period and just after the renaissance. What is life like for the local business owner? Who would they be? What extent is it still feudal serfdom in during ? It’s an interesting time with massive social, scientific, and religious ch…

Don't forget Renaissance was the peak witch burning period. Have some witch burning while you're at it!

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#244

Post by b0rsuk » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 8:31 PM UTC

sprafa wrote: post #78

Aerroon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sword fights certainly could seem more realistic without losing the excitement. Check this out ('fighting' starts at around 2 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GoQlvc_H3s

This is great but virtually all of this is similar to what I know about the samurai - most fighting with a sword ends VERY quickly with someone getting stabbed. We are talking about an encounter between two men being decided in a few swordstrokes. Seconds, not minutes. There is not much room for 3-5-10 minute fights and acrobatics. Yes it’s interesting as a YouTube video, but for filmmaking suspense comes from “dilat…

Ridley Scott's debut movie, "The Duelists" is such a movie. It's based on real diaries of two dudes who dueled several times over course of decades. The sword fighting in the movie is among the most realistic. Check out the opening scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvVyyH2mQ9E

Also, the sword fight from "The Deluge" (Polish title - "Potop"). Admittedly, the plot says the commander didn't want to kill a rebelling but skilled officer, just teach him a lesson. But otherwise well done. It was a time when fencing and horse riding training was mandatory for Polish actors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkYjdPCyYjk

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#245

Post by fakedang » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 9:06 PM UTC

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #226

gspr wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ooh, interesting. I see Distant Worlds 2 is slated for release this year. I'll try it when it's out! Thanks.

Can't possibly be as good. We know how this goes.

AoE2 was better than AOE though. Same goes for Civ 5 vs Civ 4.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#246

Post by archi42 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 12:48 PM UTC

realityking wrote: post #225

archi42 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: At least in Germany you often end up paying taxes on self-consumed solar. They calculate the tax based on what you would have payed your regular supplier (or 20c/kWh). But otoh you get to declare your "solar plant" a business, with some nice perks: If you buy the solar equipment for net 20k€ you'll pay 19% or 3.8k€ taxes. You get that money back. In addition, the 20k€ are a business expense and reduce your…

AFAIK this is only true if you pass the power you generate back to the grid - which most people did as it used to be heavily subsidized. If you run your solar without powering the grid, you won‘t be taxed on the used power.

The subsidies still exist. And while in absolute numbers they seem low, the reduced costs for solar modules still make them worthwhile.

If you don't feed into the grid as a normal person you're right (that's either "Kleinunternehmerregelung" or, if it's obviously not producing any profit, "Liebhaberei"). But if I built a fictive 500kWp solar plant to power my fictive compute center I would have to pay taxes on the self consumed power. Mind I'm a layman, so I might have gotten that wrong, but I'm 80% sure I got it right.