Retech

Okay, just one sec. 1) Jihad means struggling, usually towards a higher "enlightenment" or purpose, not necessarily holy war 2) Currently, Islamic countries are not very developed. Poor economy usually leads to disgruntled youth and extremism 3) Plenty of Christian extremists out there.

Well, maybe NPCs. But forget player countries entirely. :P

Well you start with 5x your budget (not 5x + this year, but 5x total), so I think you can buy two armies already.

National Idea: State Shinto "Yeah, those are ours too." Effect: Bonus when fighting to defend home soil (Includes attacking someone on home soil to get them off, but generally, defending Japanese territory) The year was 2070, a new age for the Japanese people. The rise to greatness since the end of world war two had come quickly, but at the cost of the pride for the Japanese people. Now that the Americans were no longer a world power, it was time for Japan to reassume its mantle of greatness, but this time, through peace. The loss of American military protection meant that Japan was without defence, so the Emporer called on the ancient military traditions and the duty to the emporer. Now that Japan's armies have been rebuilt and its people reinvigorated, it is the duty of the emporer and the Japanese people to lead the way forward through the development of advanced defensive armies and the creation of national institutions.

Well, with the exponentially increasing levels, it seems that it will take a rather long time. :P

I like the last picture the best, because it's all mystical. And it's definitely Jen.

I had to reboot my comp, so I will reinstall Steam and get back to you shortly (ten mins maybe).

New mapz [hide] http://min.us/lR6vg [/hide] I basically used my knowledge of world geography and general impressions of areas to make the map. For example, map in Europe is semi-accurate (Has Belgium, Netherlands, Burgandy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austro-Hungary, and spattering of Baltic states). Balkans are an area of a buncha small countries vying for ethnic control, so I put a smattering of smaller countries there. Also brightened the colors of player countries, so it should be obvious which ones they are.

Dangit Dusty, had to get a European country after I colored in all of Europe. Would you mind filling your country in by taking out some of the NPCs? It's mostly just Poland :P --- Okay, no need Dusty. Using your map

I'm already doing Europe and Africa. Halfway done through Europe atm. Arch was doing Asia.

Actually, lots of OPM would hit my stability and infamy too much. How about a really big tribal democracy of "everything I want to conquer" land. Anyone else want to pitch in for America.

Wait, I was going to say that all the Asian nations were actually one-province minors. :P Also, idea: NPCs get darker shades so that we can tell which ones are players!

Well if Icu gives me a set of criteria, I could do it. If the criteria is real world countries, except for the really big ones, I can do that right away.

I was going to add your country on, but I didn't trust myself not to leave off a province or two. --- Wait, Icu's playing too? ^ Not opposed, but curious

Can we start?

That's a good idea. And quite simply, they could just be less destructive.

My suggestion is that having and using WMDs carries some penalties, which should balance their destructive power. Ya know, the reason why they aren't actually used in RL.

WMDs can always be nerfed. :P

It is only thriving until a military power decides to make it less so.

We should just put your idea to a vote, instead of pretending its some sort of consensus of everyone.

But most don't develop weapons that can destroy the world.

As illustrated by: Me, with Anthrax Me, with super firebombs Rocco, with ICBMs Archi, with moon flinging Archi + Dusty, with the super ships affair Can't think of anymore off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are more. The anthrax reminds me of Dr. Strangelove, where the Soviets built a doomsday device but didn't tell the Americans, ruining the whole point of having such a Doomsday device. Except in my case, it was forgetting that I had anthrax until I was attacked, then looking back in old PMs and realizing my first project was to developed biological weapons. Pretty convienient. :P

And you are the expert on this how?

Icu, I just counted an island chain as one province, since lots of the islands are really annoying to color in, so there are 45 provinces in the Japan region and 5 in the "Chinese" region of my country. So the actual count may be off by one or two provinces, but since the benefits are based on provinces anyways, it doesn't really matter whether my count is slightly off due to the ambiguity of the map, as long as I start with 50 provinces, which I am. Rocco is correct that the research anything you want system is flawed. In Napoleanic Hegemony, I had so much money that I was just making up random research names to funnel all my money somewhere. Not to mention all of the other issues that other Hegemonies faced from unlimited research.

Added to Resistance's map with the Japanese empire. http://min.us/lZJEU