Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

For writers working on documentation, story prose, announcements, and all kinds of Wesnoth text.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Oflameo
Posts: 21
Joined: January 31st, 2012, 12:17 am

Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by Oflameo »

The information age would be my ideal place to anchor crime fiction.
HenryY2020
Posts: 21
Joined: February 4th, 2020, 7:24 am

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by HenryY2020 »

I'll say Wesnoth never reaches the information age since the apocalypse happened before humans even started to use guns(based on canon lore only).
Andrettin
Posts: 189
Joined: September 2nd, 2013, 5:40 pm
Location: Vienna, Austria

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by Andrettin »

HenryY2020 wrote: November 5th, 2020, 2:17 pm I'll say Wesnoth never reaches the information age since the apocalypse happened before humans even started to use guns(based on canon lore only).
Indeed. Though they could reach an information age after that?

Another idea is that Oflameo could place his Wesnothian information age in a divergent timeline where the apocalypse never happened.
User avatar
Oflameo
Posts: 21
Joined: January 31st, 2012, 12:17 am

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by Oflameo »

I like using divergent timelines. Playing with mechanics or modifying events would inadvertently create one anyways.
User avatar
Pentarctagon
Project Manager
Posts: 5496
Joined: March 22nd, 2009, 10:50 pm
Location: Earth (occasionally)

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by Pentarctagon »

Dwarves are using guns though. Maybe they get to the information age first :P
99 little bugs in the code, 99 little bugs
take one down, patch it around
-2,147,483,648 little bugs in the code
User avatar
TeaIntoxicated
Posts: 28
Joined: July 10th, 2019, 11:31 pm
Location: III Rzeczpospolita

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by TeaIntoxicated »

Would be kinda interesting if some mutant dwarf-troll hybrids with cybernetic implants appeared on the surface with assault rifles, infrared visors and tanks about 5 centuries after The Fall.
20 gold per basic infantry unit for the win 8)
User avatar
Celtic_Minstrel
Developer
Posts: 2158
Joined: August 3rd, 2012, 11:26 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

…what do guns have to do with an information age? Isn't information age based on the development of digital technology? You don't need guns for that. Mind you, Wesnoth pre-fall already has guns as Pentarctagon said.
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
Former maintainer of Steelhive.
User avatar
TeaIntoxicated
Posts: 28
Joined: July 10th, 2019, 11:31 pm
Location: III Rzeczpospolita

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by TeaIntoxicated »

Celtic_Minstrel wrote: November 29th, 2020, 4:41 pm …what do guns have to do with an information age? Isn't information age based on the development of digital technology? You don't need guns for that. Mind you, Wesnoth pre-fall already has guns as Pentarctagon said.
Efficiency of firearms and gunpowder artillery triggers development of heavy metal industry.
Abundance of metals makes research on electricity a lot easier thanks to their conductivity.
Meanwhile, weapon range provided by powder charges and area of effect greatly increases importance of artillery in combat, and enables indirect fire, greatly increasing need for rapid communication, most importantly, radios and telegraphs.
Those two pave the way for the rest of of information age.

Additionally, firearms break the feudal system by increasing importance of large armies of infantry conscripts with ranged weapons and no armor and decreasing importance of elite, mounted knights with heavy armor that fight in melee due to armor-piercing properties of high-velocity bullets.
That, in turn, increases need for rapid communication and transport of masses of conscripts (and artillery), the latter of which further stimulates development of metal industries needed for railway construction, and as we previously established, metal industry and rapid communication needs lead to development of technologies directly leading to information age.
User avatar
Celtic_Minstrel
Developer
Posts: 2158
Joined: August 3rd, 2012, 11:26 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

That makes sense, but I imagine there could still be ways to get there without actually inventing guns. Not that it really matters, since Wesnoth already has guns. They'd just need to spread beyond the dwarven halls, which given the Knalgan Alliance seems like a distinct possibility.
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
Former maintainer of Steelhive.
User avatar
TeaIntoxicated
Posts: 28
Joined: July 10th, 2019, 11:31 pm
Location: III Rzeczpospolita

Re: Where in the Wesnoth timeline is their information age?

Post by TeaIntoxicated »

Celtic_Minstrel wrote: November 29th, 2020, 7:58 pm That makes sense, but I imagine there could still be ways to get there without actually inventing guns. Not that it really matters, since Wesnoth already has guns. They'd just need to spread beyond the dwarven halls, which given the Knalgan Alliance seems like a distinct possibility.
Don't forget that gunpowder is Knalgan secret superweapon.
Its status is similar to Dunefolk flamethrowers, if not even more secretive.
Wesnothians don't know for sure what thundersticks really are (rumors of powder-fed beasts in sticks in manual), let alone have the recipe for gunpowder, especially when thunderers prefer to die than to tell others about it.
And yeah, they could get there without developing firearms, but that would take much longer due to lack of drive towards it, especially considering that majority of brightest Wesnothian minds rather than figuring out science have another massive topic to conduct research about - magic. Only two separated groups have any hope of getting much of research about that any soon - Knalgans in the north and Dunefolk in the south.
And unless someone sends a T-800 and slaughters Dantair before he magically nukes Weldyn by accident (and just to be sure Zhangor too) the technological progress will be greatly delayed for quite a while.
Post Reply