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MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware

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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by Kytheros   » Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:39 pm

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Aye, a coal-fired steam engine is going to be useful for ships and infrastructure (factories, foundries, mines, railroads, construction, etc). It's good for things that are large in scale and/or more or less stationary or running along fixed routes from point to point (railroads, canals, rivers) since you need a fair amount of coal to run one for any length of time.
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by MarcW   » Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:58 pm

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The industrial revolution had the result of changing society from agricultural to industrial. By moving people from the farms into the cities, it increased the work force available and at the same time freed people from worrying about food to thinking about the future.

With a larger work force available some of these people will become scientists and inventors.

What I think the inner circle should be working on is to introduce technology to move as many people off the farms and into the cites. Things like steam tractors and threshing machines.
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by McGuiness   » Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:39 am

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MarcW wrote: The industrial revolution had the result of changing society from agricultural to industrial. By moving people from the farms into the cities, it increased the work force available and at the same time freed people from worrying about food to thinking about the future.

With a larger work force available some of these people will become scientists and inventors.

What I think the inner circle should be working on is to introduce technology to move as many people off the farms and into the cites. Things like steam tractors and threshing machines.
It appears Safehold already has the equivalent of horse-drawn or "McCormick reapers." A draft dragon might be able to pull a plow with multiple blades, a harrow, and a planting machine, so Safehold agriculture probably isn't as backwards as we might think.

But I wholly agree steam power offers massive improvement. Since a modern grain combine does both reaping and threshing, and tractors can plow and plant more than dozens men using even draft dragon power, agriculture could be vastly streamlined and the number of people involved in it exponentially reduced.

"Oh bother", said Pooh as he glanced through the airlock window at the helmet he'd forgotten to wear.
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by Gustav   » Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:33 pm

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I wonder, what percentage of different safehold nations land areas are actually suitable for mechanized farming?
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by FriarBob   » Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:15 pm

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Gustav wrote:I wonder, what percentage of different safehold nations land areas are actually suitable for mechanized farming?


I would expect that at least the vast majority of current farmland would be at least reasonably suitable. But it would be nice to be able to add a lot more, land that previously wasn't worth working for whatever reason... or perhaps had never been terraformed at all and now could be (at least more easily) with mechanized tools to help?
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by fleadermouse   » Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:50 pm

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Is there any data as to the percentage of the population that is dedicated to agriculture for the different countries?

I would guess that HarChong would be the highest but i have not really looked into it

Any Ideas?
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by Gustav   » Fri Apr 27, 2012 8:57 am

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Well, the reason i am asking

It will on earth have long term consequences for potential economic growth that

USA has twice as much land suitable for mechanized farming compared to China, but China has almost 4 times as large a population compared to USA
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by McGuiness   » Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:16 pm

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fleadermouse wrote:Is there any data as to the percentage of the population that is dedicated to agriculture for the different countries?

I would guess that HarChong would be the highest but i have not really looked into it

Any Ideas?

I don't believe RFC has mentioned any hard numbers on this subject - or that he's discussed it at all. But some reasonable guesses can be made.

The most prosperous countries can afford the best farming equipment, so they likely have a lower percentage of their population as farmers. So Charis, Siddarmark, Silkiah, and possibly Desnair are the most efficient.

Serf/Slave labor is never as productive as someone who hopes to sell his crops and use the money for himself and his family. That puts Harchong at the very bottom when it comes to food production. The Temple Lands may not be much better.

The further away from the equator, the fewer crops can be raised during the growing season. Countries along the equator, such as Charis and Corisande can raise as many as three crops per year, which reduces the number of people needed to raise food for the overall population. The Temple Lands, most of North Harchong, Desnair, Sodar, and Delfarahk are likely limited to one crop per year, so they need more farmers and more cropland per person.

Most of the food being shipped to the AoG as it invades Siddarmark comes from countries which can raise only one, or at most two crops per year. That may come into play if Siddarmak and Charis can cut their supply lines.

"Oh bother", said Pooh as he glanced through the airlock window at the helmet he'd forgotten to wear.
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by bannedfromargo   » Tue May 08, 2012 3:33 pm

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As long as we don't end up with steam-powered hydrofoils, it's all good. Because then we will have seriously jumped the shark.
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by Montrose Toast   » Tue May 08, 2012 4:15 pm

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bannedfromargo wrote:As long as we don't end up with steam-powered hydrofoils, it's all good. Because then we will have seriously jumped the shark.


LOL. Don't give them ideas - I can see the thread now. Complete with steam powered hydrojets...
"Who Dares Wins"
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