Description
Economic advancements are improvements to the infrastructure of your nation. These improvements can be physical (such as highway construction or railroads), or they can be policy oriented (such as regulatory agencies or court systems).
Limitations
Economic advancements are implementations of things your nation already has the knowledge to create. This knowledge is obtained through Research. The number of advancements are only limited by player imagination. Some advancements are listed in the Advancement Chart, but players can implement their own advancements, or special variations of the listed advancements that fit the culture of their nation.
You cannot just order the construction of a communications satellite if your nation has not researched the capability to produce one. Research first….implementation of the advancement second. All nations start with the knowledge that is existent in 1900.
Categories
See main article Economic Advancement Categories
Advancements
See main article Economic Advancement Chart
Levels
In the same way that the level of military attributes have no upper limit, economic levels have no upper limit either. Military and economic
levels are not tied to any real-world timeline and are intended only to be comparative levels for game purposes. Thus, a Level 5 tank does NOT equate to 1930 real-world tank and a Level 5 Highway system does NOT equate to an Autobahn or Interstate quality system. The levels are merely to differentiate what nation is at the highest level comparatively at any given time. For example, Nation 1 could be at Level 4 Highways and Nation 2 could be at Level 115. This does not mean that Nation 2 has 1970 Autobahns and Nation 1 has 1890 dirt roads, it means that Nation 2's highway system is 115 times more efficient than Nation 1 at that time. It is an abstract reflection of the two nation's investments over time.
Players and GM's are expected to role-play these abstract concepts appropriately taking into account the relative levels and the time period.
Costs
Economic advancements take time and money to research and then time and money to implement. The higher the level of advancement, the more costly the advancement will be.
Natural Advantages
In the real-world, certain nations have natural advantages such as a well trained workforce, a history of innovation, a history of scientific achievement on which to build, or a firm industrial base in 1900. For purposes of game balance these natural advantages have been muted and it is assumed that the cultural gaps are narrower, the economic power more dispersed, and knowledge and capability more widespread. Advanced powers in 1900 are somewhat less advanced than the real timeline….lesser powers somewhat more advanced. That does not mean that disparities do not exist and that they will not grow wider as the game progresses though.
Game Effects
The game effects of Economic Advancements are varied. In some cases when the advancement is completed it will be assigned a GNP value. This value will add to your GNP each turn and you will see it on your report. For instance, building a Level 1 Auto Industry would likely be assigned one of these revenue values. If you are the highest level in that sort of category you can expect a higher GNP value. If another nation passes you, you will likely see this value decrease.
For other advancements you will see no GNP value assigned and the effect is more a subjective GM decision. For instance, a Law Enforcement/Border Patrol advancement would not qualify for a GNP effect….but it might prevent you from losing GNP on a turn where an enemy tries to send a bunch of refugees across your border. It might reduce the chances of an enemy gaining spy information from you.
This game is not Civilization IV and there is no "Tech Tree" per se. We do not want the game to become exclusively a formulaic game with no human subjectivity. Playing Civilization IV would be a better alternative for that. Economic advancement levels are a mix between formulaic rule based effects and subjective role-play effects and GM judgments. The GM will attempt to be consistent on subjective rulings of the effect of advancements.
