The Life of Isaac Newton Played Badly - A Dynasty

[Critch]

What’s that, Mr. Steam? A text RPG/simulation based on the world of 17th century European scientists? Sure, I’ll buy that.

Principia: Master of Science is the game, was released as an almost-complete early access on Steam a couple of days ago with not a whole lot of information available. What is there seems to be mainly in Japanese (I think) as the game is from a Japanese (I think) developer. It’s a turn based thing, you select the actions for your scientist for that month, press end turn advancing the world by a month and check out the results. All part of a multi-year quest to become King Science, ruler of the Scientists. Or something like that.

I’ve played through the three-month tutorial but other than that I have no idea what’s going on, this will be my first attempt at the game.

The game starts in April 1667 with 12 scientists active and available to play as, ranging in age from the 21 year old student Gottfried Leibniz up to 65 year old physicist (and Mayor of Magdeburg),Otto Von Guericke. I don’t know how long the game lasts (though I saw a screenshot from 1700, so at least that long) and I don’t know if more scientists will pop up as the years go by or existing ones die off. A number of them didn’t make it to 1700 in real life.

I’ll be playing as Isaac Newton, he starts out as a fairly unknown, fairly non-wealthy 25 year old student at Cambridge University (where one of 12 options, Isaac Barrow, is his tutor). Each scientist has an Aptitude, Knowledge and Skill rating for the different fields of study, Isaac Newton has a high aptitude for most of them. His knowledge and skill are low-ish for most as he’s just starting out, but unless I severely mess up he should be improving fast. The fields that Isaac (I feel I can be on first name terms since I’ll be playing as him) will be concentrating on will be Optics (Aptitude = A), Astronomy (Aptitude = B), Mathematics (Aptitude = S), and Dynamics (Aptitude = S). I don’t know what S is, but it seems like it’s better than A. Superior? Stupendous?

The other two fields are Biology and Thermology, Isaac won’t be wasting his time on those.

[Critch]

I copied some of the text about the game into Google Translate and it says definitely Japanese. Not Korean, as some know-nothing in the Steam forums said.

April 1667
Despite the high aptitude for Mathematics and Dynamics, Isaac starts out with Optics as his highest ranked field. His tutor at Cambridge, Isaac Barrow, specializes in Optics so I assume that’s the reason. He also starts with a prism, a useful bit of equipment for Optics experiments. So Optics will be the first first field to grab Isaac’s attention. Each field has a number of topics under it, with each topic further split into a varying number of theories/discoveries. There’s only one topic available in Optics to start with, The Disposition of Light, so Isaac will take his prism and try to answer the question “what’s up with all those colors coming out my prism?”

Newton spends April 1667 shining white light through his prism and looking at the patterns and has a bit of a brainwave. “Hold on a second, what if light refracts when it moves through a medium and that’s what’s happening in my prism?”. He’s a smart cookie.

May/Jun/July/August 1667
Isaac spends May and June experimenting to prove his theory that light refracts as it moves through a medium. Happy that his experimentation backs up his theory, he then spends July writing up a paper on his theory, and then in August submits his paper to The Royal Society of London. The Royal Society, featuring Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle and Isaac Barrow (all player choices at the beginning) consider the paper and reject it, mainly down to the objection of that wanker Robert Hooke. That didn’t happen in the tutorial. It’s not all bad news though as Isaac Barrow (Newton’s tutor and now a professor at Cambridge) decides to give Newton financial backing to continue with his Optics research.

September/October/November/December 1667.
Discouraged by the rejection from the Royal Society, Newton goes back to Cambridge and back to experimentation. In October he revises the paper to the point where he’s happy that he’s expressed the complex sections more clearly, and in November he tries to resubmit it to the Royal Society. Unfortunately their response is a popup box with Japanese text, so he has no idea what’s going on there, only that he can’t resubmit. So instead November is spent thinking about light, and the paper is resubmitted in December. Robert Hooke is still against it but this time the Royal Society ignore Hooke and publish the paper anyway. They also give an allowance to Isaac for further research, and Newton’s fame almost doubles, and he is now widely regarded as the Authority on the Disposition of Light. Up yours, Hooke.

Elsewhere Christiaan Hugyens has been busy looking at the motion of pendulums and discovering a new moon orbiting Saturn, Jean Picard has made a breakthrough on the motion of the moon, and Newton’s tutor/friend Isaac Barrow has released some paper about geometry. It’s all go.

[Critch]

January/February/March 1668
With the financial backing from Barrow, the Royal Society and a gift from German scientist Johann Becher, Isaac has a bit of financial freedom. He uses the money to spend three months doing what no self-respecting college student would ever do: he goes to class. Mathematics and Optics knowledge increased, Isaac is better placed to get all researchy. In other scientist news, friend and tutor Isaac Barrow is off on a tour round Europe, he spends march in Warsaw.

Elsewhere, Jean Picard releases a paper where he controversially claims that the Earth orbits around the Moon. He’ll feel silly when he realizes his mistake.

April/May/June 1668
Isaac retires to his quarters to spend 3 months playing with his prism and considering the nature of light. No breakthroughs or flashes of genius though. Maybe he should go out and sit under an apple tree and see if it helps.

Previous problem rival Robert Hooke is considering the nature of springs, and drawing leaves. Lol, what a loser.

End of 1668
July is spent trying to make friends and failing to influence people. Johannes Hevelius (Polish Astronomer) is a new lecturer at Cambridge, but he’s not interested in mentoring Isaac. The next three months are back to the research and a bit of reading. I’m not sure what I’m meant to do with Optics, but after months of no advances it’s time to put it on hold and move over to Mathematics for a while. Nothing interesting to report there either. The year finishes with Isaac back in class. He’s 27, he should at least try to graduate.

January-May 1669
Isaac is going to work out this light thing if it kills him. Five months of experimentation and contemplation and finally a break through. Maybe nobody can work out the speed of light because it’s infinite? That’s going to need some experimentation.

June-October 1669
Three months of trying to prove the theory that the speed of light is infinite get Isaac to “almost sure”. He writes up a paper on it, but it seems weak. It’s less compelling than the earlier paper Isaac had rejected in 1667, but it’s written now so why not submit? Isaac just needs a little increase in reputation to get himself a job lecturing, this may be his chance.

Two things that may be linked, Johannes Hevelius has become a member of the Royal Society, and the Royal Society has published Johannes Hevelius’s paper that comets are just a trick of atmospheric light. If they’ll publish that, maybe they’ll publish Isaac’s paper on the speed of light?

November-December 1669
The Royal Society rejects Isaac’s paper. Not even a split decision this time, the paper gets trashed by everybody, even Isaac’s mentors Barrow and Boyle. It’s in the trashcan and Isaac is back to the drawing board. He has another brainwave, realizes that a lens introduces issues in his experimenting and he’d be better off using a mirror. With this breakthrough the discouragement that Isaac had been feeling falls away and he ends 1669 raring to go again, before he realizes that while a mirror telescope may be a good idea, he doesn’t have the engineering skill to build it.

[Critch]

January-March 1670
Isaac started 1670 with something he’d not had before: a plan. Three months honing engineering skills, three months building a mirror telescope, three months submitting it to the Royal Society, three months basking in the reflected glory. (Reflected? Mirror telescope? Geddit!?)

I had no idea how high Isaac’s engineering skill needed to be to build a mirror telescope, but three months of practice had to help.

In the first post I mentioned not knowing if new young scientists would pop up as the years went by, that was answered in January. Sixteen year old Jacob Bernoulli arrived in Basel

April – July 1670
Some failed attempts at building a mirror telescope, some more practice and…..

August-October 1670
…in August Isaac built himself a mirror telescope. The invention was documented and submitted to the Royal Society to almost universal acclaim (everybody except Robert Hooke, he said it was just a novelty). Isaac sold his mirror telescope and bought a new lens to help with the optics research.

November-December 1670
With the increase in reputation from the mirror telescope breakthrough, Isaac got himself employment as a lecturer at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Using his new lens to research the disposition of light, he realized that light from a single source can interfere with itself, and also that light can reach round an object. Two theories in one month. Those discoveries would keep him busy for a chunk of 1671.

[Critch]

January – September 1671
The two theories from December take 9 months to research, prove, write papers and submit to the Royal Society but by September 1671 both “Light from one source interferes with itself” and “Light reaches past obstructions” were accepted and published by the Royal Society of London, despite Robert Hooke’s objections to both. In January Gottfried Leibniz published a paper trashing Isaac’s “Light refracts as it passes through a medium” paper from 1667, but the Royal Society find his claims baseless (even Hooke agrees) but then in September Hooke trashes the paper too, before being slapped down by the Royal Society.

Not sure if there’s anyway Isaac can have Hooke killed.

October-December 1671
Isaac’s last two papers have increased his reputation further, he resigns from Leiden University and heads back to Cambridge to be a lecturer there instead. The Third Anglo-Dutch War started in 1672, so good timing, Isaac.

All of 1672
Back at Cambridge, Isaac throws himself into his Optics research and theorizes an improved, High-Fidelity Mirror Telescope in May. From May through the end of 1672 he tries multiple times to actually build one without success.
Other than that 1672 is notable for an increase in the Hooke v Newton feud. Hooke goes to the Royal Society a few times to defame Isaac’s theories and each time the Royal Society finds his complaints to have no merit despite him being the Secretary of the Royal Society. To end the year he publishes a letter claiming Isaac’s theories are without worth, and mainly plagiarism anyway. What a tool.

[Critch]

1673
Isaac finally gets his High-Fidelity Mirror Telescope prototype built, writes a paper describing it, and submits to the Royal Society in May. The Royal Society publishes the invention and Isaac’s reputation is almost high enough to become a professor at Cambridge, but not quite. So stuck as a lecturer for a bit longer.

The rest of the year is taken up by another advance in Newton’s telescopes, but one that’s beyond Isaac’s skills to build yet. Other than that it’s endless accusations of plaigerism from Hooke and Leibniz. Huygens gets in on the act a little too, but some investment in his research shuts his mouth by the end of the year. It may be time to go on the academic attack against Hooke, not worth it with Leibniz as he has no reputation to damage.

1674
Another year of accusations from Hooke and Leibniz. It’s getting a bit painful clicking through their complaints to the Royal Society every month, for their complaints to be found without merit. It doesnt seem to cause any damage to the accusers reputation, other than them wasting a month's turn making the accusation.

Isaac comes up with the theory that the speed of light is finite, but too fast to measure. A couple of months of experiments and paper writing and it’s ready to be submitted to the Royal Society and published. All that’s left to complete the Disposition of Light topic is for Isaac to build a prototype of his latest telescope improvements, but that’s still beyond his level of engineering skill. As countless broken attempts will show.

[Izulde]

Thanks for making this discovery (pun intended). This sounds like an instabuy for me.

[Critch]

No problem, Izulde. It's a strange game, probably limited on replayability, but for now it's keeping me going. I think Isaac Newton is a little like playing the game on easy-mode though.

January to October 1675
The last telescope was a toughie, but months of failed attempts and practicing technique combined to raise Isaac's engineering skills and his Achromatic Telescope was completed in August. It had taken almost a year to build, but with it's completion the "Disposition of Light" topic was complete and Isaac was the talk of London's coffeeshops. September was spent documenting his findings and October it was off to The Royal Society for submission. The Royal Society voted to back Isaac's invention, despite Robert Hooke's customary no-vote, and Isaac was on his way to fame and fortune. Maybe even be Sir Isaac one day.

November and December 1675
With the credit for his work on the Disposition of Light, Isaac was now a reputable enough scientist to apply to become a fellow of the Royal Society of London. Isaac applied in November, but apparently the Royal Society of London would only take applications from people who lived in London, so Isaac resigned from Cambridge and moved. December he applied and, despite yet another no-vote from Hooke, ended 1675 as the newest fellow of the Royal Society of London.

At the end of 1675 Isaac was the third most famous scientist behind Robert Boyle (who's banging out some mad vacuum discoveries) and Jean Picard (Saturn discoveries and finally worked out the Moon orbits the Earth). Newton is also the richest, those telescopes he's been inventing dont sell cheap.

January 1676
When Isaac would look back on January, 1676 he'd think two things: "best month evar" and "suck it, Hooke". The Royal Society of London was the most prestigious academy of sciences in the world, boasting Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, Isaac Barrow (back in Cambridge after his travels), Antoine Van Leeuwenhoek (Dutch biologist), and Johannes Hevelius (Polish Astronomer) as fellows. The Society had a board of three members who voted on all submissions and membership applications, the Secretary (Robert Boyle), the Curator (Robert Hooke) and a nameless President who cast the deciding vote. January was election time, and despite being the newest member Newton was voted to the board, replacing Robert Hooke as Curator. Hence the "suck it, Hooke".

First business as a voting member of the Royal Society was a vote on whether to publish Robert Hooke's latest paper. It was tempting to vote no, but Boyle was voting yes and it was a good paper on how plants breath so the President would vote yes too. So Isaac voted yes too. He's a bigger man than Hooke, wont let personal animosity get in the way of science. Not this time anyway.

With the Disposition of Light complete it was time to move onto the next study field. Stick within Optics and investigate the Identity of Light? Move into Mathematics and overshadow Leibniz? Move into Dynamics and overshadow Hooke? Decisions decisions.

[bbgunn]

I'm not surprised that a Japanese developer would make a game about science discoveries. At the high school where I teach, they're always cramming an insane amount of science knowledge down students' throats. Students have to stay up nightly until 4 AM just to pass midterms.

Anyway, continue on...

[Izulde]

Stick it to Hooke.

[britrock88]

Tremendous.