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Week seven was spent, fittingly in Seven Kingdoms. I love these guys so much. They are a ton of fun, their Discord is poppin, Squeesquee didn't leak any of the sekrits we shared, it was a Great! time. I have two major regrets from our time in SK: 1) I was super busy with work and real life and didn't get to spend nearly enough time with them. 2) We failed to coordinate a karaoke night. That said, I feel confident that SK's future is bright in Squeezee's supple hands. They have a tight, cooperative, fun-loving community. They are one of the oldest alliances in the game. They even locked down the naming rights to their color sphere! What more could you ask for in alliance? We're not sure, so that puts Squeebee's Seven Kingdoms in the front runners for future Hobo-homes. --- While we were in The Enterprise, we had our first forever home placement! Doctor Robbins found a niche and decided that the suit and tie were her cup of tea. We wish her all the best and we are ecstatic that the purpose of this joy ride is being fulfilled. We also picked up a handful of new Hobos from across Orbis. Kilo, Hannah, Maia, Kitschie, and This Effing Guy have all hopped aboard our choo-choo train and embraced life on the rails. Our next stop is... Rose! Just in time for their elections. I wonder if they will let us vote... Stay Great! Charlie Traveler

With copious amounts of potatoes and our daily dose of light opiates imported, the next step was a trip to the frontier for some sweet music. With plenty of instruments, but no measurable sense of musical talent, it was time out to outsource the entertainment... Chasing the sunset, the chariots rode west across the desert towards the bright boomtowns of Frontier Records: Rule I of the West: Non-Aggression One must never steal or ride a man’s horse, since it’s as bad as making love to his wife. On account of not paying attention to the world, the Egyptians have no clue what ‘horses’ are, but agree wholeheartedly. No horses, or their dromedary equivalent, will be stolen from each other. Rule II of the West: Mutual Defence One must stay loyal to those you ride with and help out a friend in need - braggarts who drink on duty and cowards who aren’t worth their salt have no place on the frontier. Both parties therefore agree to intervene to assist the other in their defence against aggressors, militarily and politically. Rule III of the West: Intelligence Sharing If the hieroglyphs are on the wall, the pyramids start rumbling, and either party is made aware of any information that affects the security of the other signatory, they hereby agree to transfer all relevant information as soon as reasonably possible. Rule IV of the West: Non-Chaining Once again, as two parties who totally condemn slavery, both signatories agree that the ‘prisoners with jobs’, should be free from shackles. As such, in the event that third-party obligations lead to a signatory being attacked, Rule II of the West is deemed optional. Rule V of the West: Cancellation Not all trails lead into the sunset. If either party wishes to terminate the pact, they must provide 72 hours of notice to the other signatory, so they can finish their whiskey, wrap up their sphinx and find the nearest camel. During this period, the effects of this treaty should be considered active. Signed for Egyptian Empire: El Chach, Pharaoh Asierith, Senior Vizier RedPhx, Senior Vizier Signed for Frontier Records: Board of Directors Alexio15 DemonSpawn Tom Riddle tl;dr - Egyptian Empire and Frontier Records sign an MDP

Hello everyone, Even after doubling our server size recently, we are still struggling with excessive load times due to excessive load on the server. I believe that the source of this excessive load currently is due to heavy usage of the API endpoints. If you are unfamiliar with the game's API, then you can pretty much ignore the rest of this post as it's aimed at API users and will not impact you. First, I understand that the API is poorly designed, poorly optimized, and all around needs to be completely re-done and expanded upon. It's near the top of my to-do list, I am finishing my undergraduate degree this semester and post-graduation I will be spending my time working on the game and will start getting big projects like re-factoring the API done. However, in the meantime, the excessive load on the server is unacceptable. As a result, I am taking a blunt force action to curb the strain on the server until I can set up a proper API system. Beginning at 12:00 AM server time 3/18/2019 all API endpoints will require your API key to work. This should give everyone a few days to get their ducks in a row before the change occurs. There may be bugs as it hasn't been thoroughly tested on all of the pages; if there are report them in the Tech Support subforum and I will have them quickly resolved. API endpoints that already require your API key are not being changed by this update. I am also reducing the number of API requests per user per day. The standard number of calls has been reduced from 10,000 to 2,000 and the number of calls for VIP users has been reduced from 999,999 to 5,000. When the API is refactored this will be changed to a rate limit instead of a daily limit, however I am simply working with the existing interface because I do not have time to rewrite the entire system currently. I understand this is a significant decrease in the number of calls allowed. However, there are 15 API endpoint pages, if you call each of them every 5 minutes every hour per day, that's only 4,320 calls per day, which easily falls within the VIP limit. Realistically, you shouldn't need to call each page every 5 minutes anyway. As-is, the two highest request users are just barely reaching over 2,000 calls per day, with an average of the top 10 users being 764.7 calls, a median of 507, and a range of 1962. I understand not all calls are being recorded here, but the point is that for the average API user this should not be a significant limitation. The point of this update is to curb usage of the API, and by creating a scarcity I am hoping to discourage people from making too many calls and causing ridiculous load times for regular users. Yes, it's a poor fix, but as I've stated it is a temporary solution until I have the time to properly refactor the API. I did not want to have to do this, but it seems to me a necessary sacrifice given the conditions the game is currently operating under. If you have any questions, please ask below.

The horses were only introduced around the Second Intermediate Period. Prior to that, in more than 1000 years of Egyptian Civilization, they had no clue what they were. We were running with the old kingdom on that reference ?

I have to agree with Sketchy on this one, he has a really good point. Same as Buorhann, I have no dog in this fight. I am personally happy that Pantheon gets to live on, because I'd also hate to see my alliance get couped by somebody and than subsequently die. I completely understand where both Alex and Ridcully are coming from. I wouldn't be making this post if this player had cheated or broken the game rules. I 100% support you on banning multis and reverting events that those multis caused. However, the player that couped Pantheon was not in violation of any rules, just like you pointed out. Pantheon is fully responsible for their own alliance, they promoted that player to the heir role and having that player in the heir position was their own fault, for which they got punished. If that player goes into VM and their alliance dies, this is no one else's fault but theirs. I think in this scenario, letting this play out would've been the better choice for the game, as this was not the first time Pantheon has made this mistake, and I can bet a lot of money that it won't be the last. I can understand why players would get ticked off when Alex undo's mistakes a specific alliance makes. If they have to re-make their whole alliance because of this, than so be it, because they learned their lesson and aren't getting any special privilege. Having the owner of the game interfere with it when it comes to alliance coups sets a really bad precedent and it's honestly terrifying, especially because it happened through in-game mechanics with no rule violations.

Thank you for having us, Seven Kingdoms. Be prosperous. Looking forward to our visit to rose. The Hobo Express is a wild ride!

@Dubayoo you are just disagreeing with no point, since the point is the player didn't break any rules. If the player broke any rules then you would have a point.

We'll have to get us a karaoke night set up before too long, with some special guest singer hobo's

Had a great time with all you guys visiting! I wish you safe travels!

@Alex if you are going to do this, can you at least give each person 2 seperate api keys, one for public apis (war, alliances/nations etc) and one for private apis (alliance members, bank)? I can't grant edit access to my sheets to anyone now because they'll just be able to open up the script editor and look directly at my api key, then use it to pull whatever private alliance api data they like.

So.... going into VM is cheating now? Not sure how the two situations are comparable.

I actually with Alex on this one. VM is meant for people to temporarily pause playing while they have other distractions IRL. It's not meant to avoid wars. Nor to paralyze alliances by taking control and them VMing, so that regardless of further politics / negotiating between players, it is now impossible to actually do anything for 2 weeks. It's pretty clear VM abuse, and I think we should be more strict on that, not less (especially with wartime shenanigans). If he had stayed in power and tried to hold the alliance hostage, raise the taxes, etc, that would be another thing and he absolutely should not be removed in such cases. Maybe he should have just been forced out of VM, but he definitely should not be allowed to VM while the sole leader of the alliance.

I never was much for tradition. Never made a farewell thread back in November when I quit, but having logged in now to quite a few messages inquiring why; here's a quick one. The game got very boring for me a long time ago. When it got to the point of affecting RL and dreading having to even log in; I quit. I always played for myself, and that's exactly how I ended it. Probably what sums up this game for me is, despite having quit 5 months ago, I am still #1 on the tanks destroyed leaderboard with a 280k+ lead! Most of my friends are long gone but, anyway, thank you for the great time everyone. Have a good RL!

No he wouldn't, and Alex admitted such when it happened. Even if the bank had been deleted with the nation instead of moved. Go back to be quiet irrelevant trash with the rest of your alliance please, the lot if you lack the capacity to discuss this.

Yes it's weird that people continue protecting pixel hugging trash. Empryea would be doing everyone a favor by slaughtering them.

Completely agree with this and Radoje's post above. Nothing that was done was against the rules, so there shouldn't have been any intervention from Sheepy at all. Pantheon simply haven't learnt their lesson, this isn't the first time this has happened - with the same alliance - so it is, plainly and simply, their fault. Nothing else to it.

You missed the point of page 3! Going into VM isn’t against the rules, crippling an alliance isn’t against the rules. Sheepy shouldn’t have done anything. The TUE situation is different.

Not using my crappy hand writing, good. Condolences to EE for putting up with my shit XD

El cach leader? Better be ready to get hit, violating a peace treaty.

If you had actually paid attention: he didn't say going into VM was cheating. He made the case that one player going into VM and paralyzing 100+ others was significant grounds for him to intervene on the side of those actively still playing. If dude had not gone into VM things would have been totally different but he basically quit the game mid-power play on this one. f

laughs in cache rawr

I think one of the underlying issues is less about the amount of calls to the server and more likely the amount of redundant calls to the server. Things like trade, war and other notification bots access the server constantly and pull data. As a community we have more than enough resources to be able to address this concern for Alex in the meantime. In order to accomplish this we could simply implement the following: A proper caching layer Things like nation data and such. It changes but not extremely regularly A distributed push notification system with a single system calling the server -- This data is relatively static and would only need to be pulled once from the server on a simple timed schedule Trade Bots War Bots War Attack Bots If this is something the community would be interested in I could work on it in the near future.

Yes, a trade bot that called the api and showed you mistrades would fall under those other things. As would your military notification bot, a battle simulator sheet etc.

Not all calls presently require a key and as such they are not tracked.

Would a certain trade bot fall under "some other things"?

Ofc, jokes aside, it's an understandable change and I can't fault you on this too much. If you think the servers are going to have a lot less load on them via this change, it'll generally be the best thing for the casual playerbase that doesn't really use the api. If the game loads faster, than I'm perfectly willing to compromise and have the cap. What this might influence a lot is things like recruitment bots and of course Frawley's awesome stat tracker, so you might want to see if you can make a compromise for those 2, and maybe some other things. Recruitment bots are great because they pick up newer players which than have a lot larger retention than players that don't ever join alliances. Maybe to make that compromise you could add an option where people can use alliance keys instead that have a larger cap, maybe 10,000 or something.

My opinion on what would be ideal is for everyone to be able to promote themselves one level if there is no-one at all above them; with the following rules: (A). If there is no leader, then the heir can promote themselves up to leader; if the leader is VM, the heir can remove the leader from the alliance outright and then therefore promote themselves up to leader in that order, if multiple heirs whoever does it first gets it (B). If there is no leader AND no heir, then any single officer can promote themselves up to heir, and therefore up to leader, in that order, first on the draw gets it; if there is no leader or the leader is VM and the heir is VM, then any single officer can remove the absentee heir and/or leader and therefore do the thing (in order, first come first serve) (C). If there is no leader AND no heir AND no officers outside of VM, then any member can simply promote themselves to officer and therefore heir and therefore leader. If all of the leadership are VM then any member can boot 'em all and take control. For extra shenanigans, let applicants count as members for the purposes of these rules :3

I have about the same effect on people.

The Die is Cast “Senatus Populusque Romanus” The Senate and People of Rome After a long and patient wait, enduring storms and disasters alike, we are proud to introduce the world of Orbis to the true descendants of Romulus and Remus. From a single city to an empire that conquered at home and abroad, Rome flexed its military strength while also bringing about modernity in its time. The very politics you employ in your alliances are possible because of Rome. We are a family of individuals who came from a broken home - looking to create a community where all who desire to be given a chance would be welcome. Our group stands with one another, expressing a unique loyalty, working together for the success of the community. We enter Orbis with the honor of true Roman soldiers. The Leadership of SPQR makes a commitment to assist nations who seek and wish to learn and grow strong within Orbis. We strive to govern with diplomacy and, while we are not warmongers, we will defend our own. The Roman Imperium Imperator Daveth Praetor Krampus The Senate Senator of the People Lon Senator of War Daveth Senator of Coin Krampus Senator of Diplomacy Waldo We are proudly protected by Polaris and TUE Join us on Discord Peruse our in-game page

Generally speaking if you really want to coup a place you should actually stick around long enough to watch things play out instead of hopping into VM. Very disappointing. Little thought put in, poor spin, and absolutely zero follow through. I give it a 2/10. Micros have done better.

Looks like it happened sooner than I expected. Remember guys, couping is now illegal without Sheepy's permission.

What are you talking about? Polaris was the first stop.

No arguing that, sitting around doing frick all is comfortable and Polaris' specialty. Hehe, couldn't miss out on a thread of shitting on Polaris

Polaris government would have to login in order to let the Hobos in.

Is that why you've never shown any inclination to improve at war?

@Kriegskoenig It's strange that you gave me two different replies over a small statement and yet you called @Spaceman Thrax triggered. I'll bite though, against my better judgement. Some clarification though. First off, The Enterprise would fit in more with what you claim is Rosesphere (I argue it's more Syndisphere 2.0, honestly). Rose is tied to Syndicate, Enterprise is a protectorate of Syndicate. That debunks your dumb statement there. Second off, if I need information, I don't need Kev/Charlie to do it for me. In all honesty, other than radio talk show hijinx, I rarely talk to them (Mostly because I've been busy in RL). Hell, I haven't even had time to do my own show as much as I'd like or even join theirs. That'll be fixed though, with my latest promotion. However on the point, I have had my sources long before they joined the game, so I'm good. Third, you're right. You'd most likely keep them in a padded room. Finally, it's interesting that you had to emphasize on the disbanding bit and somehow think you'll get me on TGH/Mensa and Polaris lasting longer than both of them. If you do, fantastic! At least you can mark that down for the single achievement that Polaris will possibly ever achieve! As for the merging joke, in all seriousness, if you guys actually want to do something - I'm open to it. You just have to be willing to get off your ass instead of hiding behind your Big Brother(s).

Hobos:

Didn't realize when we accepted the hobos in and gave them stellar internship positions that we were merely a pawn in a much bigger game. Thank you for uncovering this conspiracy theory I will be sure to send the findings to our public relations team to create a statement ASAP. That aside they were great workers and it was a joy to have them with us for the week they were there. Safe travels hobos and may you hopefully find a safe haven somewhere...probably not Polaris though, seems like a hostile environment over there.

Enterprise is Rosesphere. And literally everyone knows what sphere your alliance is in. So uhh. Not only are you completely wrong, you're still proving my point about why you were probably passed over. I'm sorry no one wants to visit you guys, though! : )

On a more serious note: there's literally a video in OP of them picking a top 10 alliance to visit with a random generated choice from a roulette lmfao

The fact that you made a diagram to "explain" that no one seems to want to visit your sphere might actually be a good demonstration of why no one wants to visit your sphere...?

From the distant and ardent sands of the Egyptian Empire, Dave the Slave escaped the fury of his masters after months of being nurtured only eggplants, cacti water and onions, he made his way to the great city of Rome hidden in a trading ship. His destiny was yet to unfold...

I'm not sure exactly where to start with your bad maths. Yes you might have 15 api endpoints, but those endpoints are not all equal. There are ~260 Alliances, ~10.7k Nations and ~61.9k Cities that are accessible from those endpoints. Calling all those, even once per day, gives you a maximum of 73k potential calls per day. Which is the root of the problem. It is impossible to get the information required for even the most basic of stuff, without delving into the individual API endpoints. If you want to a proper short term solution, merge /alliance into /alliances, /nation and /city into /nations. Sure they'll be massive, especially in terms of nations, but hopefully no one should be fetching it more than once per day (and you can possibly rate limit it when you have time). Good luck with your degree and if you ever want to discuss the API, feel free to DM me on Discord or tag me in #api

The missions were fun, but the story was definitely the worst one of the bunch. Especially the ending. What the hell...