From what I heard right up before muskets.

That's up to you.

Will technological advances in game allow for submarines and underwater housing as the game evolves?
17 NOV 15 V-BW

Where we end I don’t think we’re going to end with underwater housing and/or submarines. If I had to guess we’re going to end somewhere around our industrial revolution or just before that. In the sense we’ll start to look at industry and automation, and people know I am a big fan of steampunk so I would have no problem if the world starts out in kind of a bronze age and ends up in a steampunk age.

It's kind of crazy to think about how much the game is going to change over time if that's still how they are looking at end game being ~steampunk.

Personally, I hope we don't get too far into gunpowder use.

But that's just me. I feel like it makes destruction way too easy and would ruin the game.

Gunpowder use could be interesting in my opinion - it's probably going to take many irl years to actually reach the point of discovering it. And then you've got to discover how to actually use it (there wont be advanced guns and such immediately after gunpowder is discovered) - and the original weapons that used gunpowder - early cannons and guns etc? Notoriously problematic; jamming all the time, exploding in your face, taking ages to reload, incredibly inaccurate, you name it, but that's balanced out with, in general, greater destructive capability. If you have these kinds of balancing factors, taking in to account character proficiency with the weapons as well as having some kind of player skill check mechanic with them it shouldn't be an issue.

Gunpowder was invented in the 9th century.

Firearms however were invented in 14th century, so even if we do discover gunpowder early we might not have anything more than hand bombs for a while.

Exactly, people are always overly afraid of gunpowder, it won’t be a problem, and the benefits of having gunpowder will outweigh the perceived downsides.
It’s not like having guns wills suddenly turn the game into halo.

Actually, I think the first large scale military use of gunpowder was in clay based hand grenades. So it would be more like the first 30 seconds of a CS match :P

Inventing gunpowder and being able to effectively deploy it as a weapon are two different animals. Ideally you would want to use it in a way that ensures it is never exposed to moisture which can be problematic in most circumstances.

Thrown "grenades" are the easiest route because you have a sealed device that is reasonable protection against wet powder, but making them in the field would be difficult, so you are very much "rounds limited."

Weight and size are another big hurdle for any significant military action. A soldier can only march with so much weight so you have additional wagons and mouths to feed.

You have to remember that we've had firearms for a pretty long time but melee combat in wartime was quite common up until WW2. Lighter weapons that could fire much faster and had detachable magazines are what really killed off hand-to-hand combat.

depending whether or not the game ends after the 10 year arc or if they continue it will probably decide just how far things can go. that and how driven and effective the inventors of the game end up being. my guess is it'll reach the very early industrial era in some areas

I'll take some downvotes but,

As long as they don't ruin the game with flying ships and muskets I'm game to atleast hear them out.

Posted By CrowSplat at 10:23 PM - Thu Apr 18 2019

Inventing gunpowder and being able to effectively deploy it as a weapon are two different animals. Ideally you would want to use it in a way that ensures it is never exposed to moisture which can be problematic in most circumstances.

Thrown "grenades" are the easiest route because you have a sealed device that is reasonable protection against wet powder, but making them in the field would be difficult, so you are very much "rounds limited."

Weight and size are another big hurdle for any significant military action. A soldier can only march with so much weight so you have additional wagons and mouths to feed.

You have to remember that we've had firearms for a pretty long time but melee combat in wartime was quite common up until WW2. Lighter weapons that could fire much faster and had detachable magazines are what really killed off hand-to-hand combat.

yes, on top of that there's also the logistics.

Transporting large amounts of gunpowder over large distances is dangerous. don't underestimate the importance of logistics in warfare

To be honest I think games are ruined when they start moving into modern mechanical advancements. I like my games squarely in a medieval style fantasy. I would hope that the advances would be in chemistry and potentially a small expansion of magic etc. explosive powder is Ok, but keep it old school rather than things like motorised vehicles or guns.