Idle Idea-O1 World, 10 Years Later

[speaker-to-trolls]

A few days ago I slogged my way through the entirety of the O1 World game and commentary threads.

My God, things got nuts after I left.

I mean, after the Commonwealth went into an extended period of isolation following the Atlantic War.

So I idly wondered, what would the world of O1 have developed into by the year 1975 or so? When the game ended the situation, as far as I could tell, was thus:
The Hindu Raj, Soviet Union, Oceanian Federation and Republic of Texas dominated world affairs as the Quadruple Alliance, the Raj being by far the largest and most powerful of these nations and seeking to expand its influence all the time.

The Kingdom of Athenia and its territories had split into the still omnibelligerent Empire of the Phoenix, led by FDR's evil mirror universe counterpart, and the much more relaxed Empire of New Byzantium, led by the much more relaxed Emperor Norton. The Phoenixians were, as the game ended, constantly trying to destabilise New Byzantium and kill Norton so they could reinstate the Empire.

The Chinese Empire had split into three states, one monarchist, one communist and one, I believe, Buddhist. The monarchist one, led by a clone of the psychotic former Emperor of China Bo Jing Chen, had begun a war against the newly created communist Korea led by little Kim Jong Il.

Alien batteships had attacked Malaysia and Athenia. The Raj had, after extensive research, gained some advanced computer technology, alien prisoners, and what could potentially be some kind of technology to reduce the effects of gravity. The Athenians got... an alien battlesuit and a... Green Lantern ring? Which either picked up John Stewart and made him dismantle all the stuff... or it just flat out didn't happen.

Japan had got free of Athenian control and once again become independent and violently xenophobic toward the dishonourable, mortal, human gaijin of the world. The Phillipines had also entered the world stage.

The European powers of France and Spain were still reeling from their incredibly expensive invasion of Athenia, but were strengthening the European community, presumably to resist the inevitable confrontation with the QA. The French Emperor was assassinated and his son was set to take the throne, and Spain was losing its grip on its colonies, particularly Mexico.

An all powerful crime syndicate was planning to kill the new French Emperor (I believe) and take advantage of the ensuing chaos.

Brazil was raking it in loaning money to everyone who had foolishly bankrupted themselves with constant wars.

An ill fated Athenian invasion of the unimportant African nation of Shroomalia resulted in the Athenians spending themselves into the ground and blackening the names of their leaders for the next thousand years by using Bo Jing Chen's virus to mutate locals into bloodthirsty mutants and unleashing a psychich Person of Mass Destruction (PMD) on the populace. The PMD was assassinated by the Raj navy and the Maharajah enacted the Sorceror's Decree, declaring that any future attempts to create PMD's would be similarly met. The PMD miraculously survived, but was then killed and eaten by superstitious Shroomalis, who may have absorbed some of his power, resulting in the deaths of a swarm of locusts besetting the country.

And finally, the former Spanish colony of Rio, located in British Columbia, was wracked by war, served as the testing site for Bo's mutants and finally fell into the hands of Communist revolutionaries with the tacit support of the Brazilians. THere were also some fighters from a Hyperborean client state fighting there but I dropped the ball on them, sorry.

So, what do people think would happen over the NEXT ten years on this unbelievably fucked up planet?

Personally I see the Raj gaining more and more dominance over the Quadruple Alliance, and quite possibly starting to annex more territory in Africa and the middle east. They might, however, come to blows with the Soviets over Turkey and bits of Central Asia, which would lead to the QA falling apart and its lesser members falling in line with either the Raj or the USSR.

Japan would keep very quiet if it knew what was good for it.

Communist Rio would almost certainly annoy the Phoenixians extensively, but whether they would be in any state to conquer bits of the northwest USA I have no idea. I would also say that maybe the Ontarian guys survived somewhere and formed their own, small and disruptive, princedom.

The Commonwealth would either fall to bits or come out of isolation at some point, probably falling into the orbit of the USSR.

The Empire of the Phoenix would, if Mirror FDR continued as he had done, continue to throw its money away on wars, assassination attempts and superweapons. If they became more reasonable then they could stabilise, there would almost certainly be conflicts over lands in the northwest between it and New Byzantium.

I've got no idea where the crime syndicate were going.

The French and Spanish would be trying to rally their empires as a bulwark against the QA and unite Germany and the rest of Europe, including the Commonwealth if possible, against the looming Hindu-Soviet threat. If the QA split down the middle I'm not sure who's side they'd take. In fact they'd probably play both sides off against the centre for a while.

Ah, but of course the question on everybody's mind for those ten years would be the hunt for the world's greatest war criminal;
Where on Earth
Is Lord Commander Ozai,
Lord Commander Ozai...
Where is that magnificently goateed, fireball-spamming, African mutating bastard?

And there is another plot point which occurred to me today; The Athenian PMD was, as I said, eaten by superstitious Shroomalis, some of whom seemed to gain some of his power, and it occurred to me there was an African EMpire the Raj had some conflict with who had interests in Shroomalia. Perhaps they could begin testing the Shroomalis who started exhibiting this strangeness. But if this got back to the Raj Very Bad Things would happen, because of the Sorceror's Decree.

Also, Bo Jing Chen's virus would be studied intensely, because if it could be refined to only give people the strength and resilience of the mutants it would have a million and one applications.

SO that's all my thoughts, what does anyone else think?

[Siege]

The Raj was already at risk of overextension by the end of the game, owing to the way they were constantly grabbing land everywhere. By 1975 I would imagine outright expansion has mostly stopped in favor of the cultivation of client states such as Raj-in-China (the southern Chinese provinces), Persia and perhaps even that African empire the name of which I've forgotten. At this point the Oceanians or the Russians have probably put men on the moon, and the Raj is continuing its development of ever-faster bombers and aircraft, followed closely by the Russkies.

The relationship between the Raj and the Soviets was ever a weird one: you'd expect them to be rivals for control of China and Central Asia, but it was more like a friendly partnership instead. It might've held, at least as long as Kruchev and the Maharajah were BFFs. However even if it did I imagine the Raj (and possibly the Soviets too) will come into conflict with the European powers over influence in the Middle East. I doubt an outright war would happen though, since the way the Raj army was set up (lots and lots of light infantry, little in the way of heavy armor or even mechanization apart from trucks) made it ideal for taking and holding remote provinces but wouldn't allow them to take on a properly mechanized force. Which in turn would mean that the Raj would have to break out the bomber swarm of doom, which means... Well, the end of the world basically.

I didn't expect much to come of the scavenged alien tech (apart from a faster development of computer technology) before the mid-1980s, at which time I might've gotten away with outrageous human/alien hybrid fighter porn. But that'd still be a long way into the future.

Not sure about the rest of the world myself... North America was always a cauldron of bizarrities, the Phoenix guys might've nuked Rio for all I know. Africa hadn't really been fleshed out beyond Shroomalia (which was on the wrong side of Africa to actually be Somalia, but hey). I imagine the Oceanians were saving up to build Sealab or build a Mars colony or something - they seemed to be into rushing the tech-tree bigtime - and I think Brazil would've gone bankrupt after the Texans proved unable to pay back their debts and their gold mines ran dry .

Man. That was a pretty fun game, now that I think about it...

[Shroom Man 777]

Rio would've turned into a North American Cuba, basically, and would be the Soviet Union's foot in the North American door.

Byzantium would be, today, something like Ukraine to Phoenix' Russia. While the Phoenix guys continuously try to off Norton and destabilize his government, a lot of foreign powers - from the Raj itself to even the USSR - would be investing in Byzantium's stability to offset post-Athenian Phoenix. Nobody wants to see the Athenians come back, see. Hell, this was why the Soviets turned Rio into a client state, and purchased a base in Hawaii, and basing rights in Brazil too, to basically surround North America in an Athenian containment strategy.

The relationship between the Soviets and the Raj is very, very tricky. The Raj's interference in the Chinese Civil War/Chinese-Korean War was something of a sore point. But Shroomanski (:P) and the Maharajah were BFF, as Siege pointed out, because both didn't want a damn Cold War draining both countries. Still, two neighboring superpowers? We'd be very careful with each other. The Soviets are deliberately trying to catch up with the Raj when it comes to the Bomber Gap.

The Soviets/Brazilians/Oceanians might go for a Moonshot. I was always musing on this, but never had the time to go for it. Still, their combined space program was the most advanced in the game. The Raj had a goddamn Dyna-Soar though, so those guys are not far behind.

The Brazilians get filthy rich. Well, they already are, but I think they'd get richer.

Super Europe becomes even superer. Ties between the Commonwealth and the Concord would be close. I think my Khrushchev/Shroomanski analogue would actually not try to antagonize them, and I was actually musing on opening up to the European powers and have France connect its TGV with the Trans-Siberian rail or something. Also, oil pipelines, and European investment into Russian industries was something I was really musing on. I was too lazy to post these. But yeah.

In a way, I'd think the evolution of three or four superpower blocks, namely the Soviets, Raj, and the Europeans plus the assorted Quadruple Powers, would help make the world a more stable place. We're so huge that big conflicts would be undesirable except to some Athenian Grinning loon. The only major hotspots would be North America and East Asia.

I think the Soviets would try to police Mao and Kim Jong-Kill and restrain them. They've discovered that the Raj aren't pleased with backyard disturbances, and will try to stabilize the area so the Raj won't have to do anything drastic and upset the Raj-Soviet balance of Asia. The Soviets' restraint might piss off Mao and Kimmy, though. But Mao and Kim aren't in any position of power to be deciding anything.

[Heretic]

Gosh, we should make an universe out of this gem. I mean, this was the longest RP ever in the history of O1. It would be awesome if this had it's own threads. O1 World 1970! Dude! I mean, even if the universe is inactive, it could stand as a monument of our efforts!

[Mobius 1]

Since Oceania never really stood a chance against the likes of the Raj, the Soviets, or SUPER-Europe, I'm fairly sure I would've kept my head down, been buddies with everyone, and go into Deep SCIENCE. Hard SCIENCE. Oceania would become even more of a innovative hotbed than it already was, with the Soviets and the Brazilians funding my moon program and so on and so forth. I'm pretty sure the Raj would have something to say about any ridiculous innovation in computers with its alien tech, but given it doesn't horde it, the Oceanic computer industry would've kicked some major face.

I wish I had finished my supervillain project before the game imploded. I had tons of crazy ideas for them I've mostly forgotten.

[Shroom Man 777]

You know, thanks to O1 World, I actually learned quite a lot about Cold War 60s-era military hardware and thinking. It was quite educational, and the research that went along all my picture-digging was worth it. It gave me a newfound appreciation of Soviet military hardware too!

Also, the Soviet space program would've worked together with the Oceanian moon program, for what it's worth. We put people in space with thanks to Oceanian and Brazilian monies. I even had the Soviets launch Oceanian and Brazilian cosmonauts into space. The Brazilian was named COCHENGO SARSAPARILLA.

[Magister Militum]

Actually, gentlemen, Destro and I were fomenting the insidious goal of playing off of all of you and conquering Earth.

In all seriousness, my perfidious plans were much less threatening and more political. I (and maybe Destructionator) realized early on that France had no hope in matching the QA, hence the move to create SUPER EUROPE that could rival the Soviets and Hindus. The unification of Germany, which was pushed for heavy by Spain and France, was a major step in that direction, especially since it was implied that they had the potential to be a major power in their own right. Given enough time, the Concord would have probably evolved into some sort of Pan-European Empire, a semi-loose confederation encompassing most of Europe and her colonies and dominated by the Paris-Madrid-Berlin Axis.

After that, it all gets increasingly hazy. I personally had planned to possibly expand some more into Africa and set up a stronger power base in the Middle East through my Levant proxy. Don't know how Super Europe would have reacted to a Soviet-Raj split. More likely than not, they would have played both against one another.

Oh, and as for Ozai, the general plan that I discussed with a few others was that a French special agent would have killed everyone who was even remotely connected to the assassination of the French emperor (since he ordered it), find Ozai, hurt him badly, and then dump what's left of his body on the steps of Athenian/Phoenix intelligence as a warning. It's not like Kamin was going to get away with that particular incident.

[Shroom Man 777]

The Soviet-Raj would still be willing to set their differences aside and work with each other to kick your butts.

Though to be fair, I think the Soviets would be OK with multipolar stability. We could get a whole bunch of agreements and treaties and glasnots and pereshroomskas to make things smoother. That's what's in our interests. Stability. Which is why for certain naughty powers who keep on upsetting people, we decided to encircle their hemisphere with strategic bases and outposts as a means of containment.

[Ford Prefect]

Ten years pass ... enter THE PREFECTURE.



PS. guys this sounds pretty hilarious, I should read read that actual game.