[Spy rebuild, function, and Satellite project changes.]

On 7/29/2022 at 8:35 AM, Prefontaine said:

SPY TRAINING CHANGES
-Spies are either in Active Duty or Reserve status.
-Freshly trained spies are in Reserve Status by default but you can train up to 4 into active if you choose
-Reserve spies cannot be used for defense or offensive and cost 1/4 of the upkeep
-Spies in reserve cannot be killed.
-Spies cannot move from Active to Reserve, but only Reserve to Active.
-Spy training rates are tripled. (8 can go into reserve and 4 into active or 12 can go into reserve with all spy projects. 6 can be made per day with no spy projects and you can have up to 4 of them be active duty)
-Spies take 5 days (60 turns) to move from reserve to active.
-Total spy count (active + reserve) cannot exceed the maximum number of spies a player can have. 

SPY FUNCTION CHANGES
-Scaling kills for based on number of spies used ( % kills = -2200/(spies+23)+126 )

If you look at the blue line, those are the kill rates. 20 spies deployed is about 75% of the normal kill rate. 6 spies is about 50% the normal kill rate.

SPY SAT CHANGES
-No longer provides a 50% bonus to kills
-Provides an additional spy operation per day
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Similar to beige, it's up to the attacker to give you a reprieve. While being beige cycled you cannot fully rebuild unless your attacker lets you. With spies you cannot rebuild your spies unless your attackers stop killing your spies. This way now provides a way to rebuild your spies in a manner which they cannot be killed while still utilizing some of them for guerilla tactic ops. The damage on those ops have been reduced some, but with a double buy all players can still see above 50% damage with a double buy.

The reason for the delay in moving from reserve status to active is to lengthen the window of easy spy ops for the attacker. If a player with all projects wants to get back to max spies with 12 a day into reserve, that's 5 days, with an additional 5 days that provides attackers with a 10 day window to take advantage of their spy blitz. It also stops alliances from keeping all of their spies in reserve to suddenly move out when an alliance war starts as they entire length of the first round with leave them without any spies. 

I'm actually not super opposed to much of this, but, even though you laid out a logic behind a 5 day waiting period from reserve to active, I do think that's quite lengthy. It takes less time to rebuild an entire military from zero, and that's purely based on Day Change mechanics. With this being based on Turn Change mechanics, and being a flat 60 turns, I mean, it just seems like quite a long period.

Maybe you said it elsewhere, but, why nerf/adjust Spy Sat as far as the damage/extra spyop?

[PSA Military Salvage is AMAZING]

I didn't read all of the comments, so, sorry in advance. I'd maybe increase the percent, and make it a flat win/or lose

[Beige, the Final Season.]

3 hours ago, Marika said:

So... Will wars be infinitely long only determined by warchests running out or shorter than one round with these changes?

My thought is that wars will be determined even sooner, and have more profound effects after the "first round". I think without addressing scores, that people "automatically" getting beiged will cause one side to plummet rapidly, and that this will cause the "winning" sides high tier to essentially be even harder to reach than before. 
Picture HW hitting whoever, and whoever they hit, is basically guaranteed to take beiges, multiple beiges, right from round one. Sure, they can maybe rebuy military, but, I don't know if they'll ever be able to actually retaliate against the higher tiers that hit them, and ever have a chance of "winning". 
The beige damage/infra cost alone from this change will make wars abnormally ugly IMO (I could be wrong.

Edit; I just saw Pre mention that score changes are in the works

[Beige, the Final Season.]

3 hours ago, Prefontaine said:

Beige changes have been discussed ad nauseam but we're ready for the public discussion phase. If all things go well, we will run a test server tournament with some in game cosmetic rewards to hopefully increase participation. 

The goal of these beiges is to create a window for defeated nations to rebuild, even during large scale wars. This will provide alliances with the option of coordinating a counter blitz and try to turn the tide of a war. This will allow for the possibility of wars to not be decided in the first round, or first hours, or a war. 

Changes:

1. Every player defeated in a defensive war results in 2.5 days (30 turns) of beige.
2. Every player defeated in an offensive war results in 0.5 days (6 turns) of beige.
3. All wars that end from expiration result in beige for the defending party.
4. Beige accruals are capped at 5 days (60 turns).
5. Beige accruals do not begin reducing down until all defensive wars end. 

Clarifications:

Points 1 and 2 mean that if I declare a war on Alex, and I, as the attacking party lose the war, I gain 0.5 days of beige. If I attack Alex and he loses, he gains 2.5 days of beige. 

With the current score system in place, and the inevitability of beiges going to (most likely) the defending party of a blitz, is there no concern that the sheer exponential increase in infra lost, will make gaps in parties wider than we’ve seen before?

If my normal strategy is to zero and sit on someone till they expire, now they will be forced to eat a beige, and most likely from someone else. That’s quite a lot of infra/score reduction. I’m quite “worried” that this will make longevity of wars even shorter than our current “round 1” wars.

[{Anniversary} Time is up. (1 Year)]

The date? July 23, 2021.
The setting? Discord, obviously, lol.
The participants? Rebel, Basebond, Fabian, Decagon, Keegoz, Lefty, Cassia, Kev, Dream, Kung. (Sorry if I forgot anyone)
The situation? Most people are pretty laid back. Most people are being directed to me, Decagon. (Deposits, etc, lol.)
The light backstory? ....

  The remnants of Error 404, and Children of The Light came together in one of the more successful merges in recent times. This merge resulted in Cataclysm and soon there after, the formation of the Clock bloc. We made a mutual agreement and spent roughly 1-2 weeks after arguing over potential alliance names, themes, gov structure, you name it! It was the first time that many of us had ever spoken to our counterparts in E404/CoTL, and alas, to some peoples surprise, there was quite a bit of tension. Not too surprising when I look and think back to it all. CATA formed that day, and I can't express how grateful for this ride. It's been a tale of ups and downs across many different environments, whether it be MA, Econ, just having my first interactions in the FA world, etc. CATA is truly something special to me, and I hope that all of our members, from the low tiers who are raiding, to the department heads alike, feel that CATA is something we've all had a large part in building!

  We've seen many Members, Low Gov, High Gov's and Leaders come and go, and it was due to their participation as well as the ones currently holding the reins, that CATA is proud to announce our first of (hopefully) many Anniversaries! We celebrate our one year anniversary, and are having a casual, laidback, and fun filled day today!

Want to join in on some of the fun?

Here's some of the events that we're hosting today; we hope to see you all there!

(If you aren't in CATA and want to join in on HOI4 or Warzone, just ping/ask someone in our main public channel, or in our community channel! We have many people that join us for these games from many alliances, so don't feel shy!)

There are games of HOI4 going on at this very moment by the way, so please ask how to join, feel free to watch, etc! There are maybe 12+ people already there!

[Imperial Decree - Polaris Cancellation Notice to the Haunted Mansion]

Good luck to ya'll

[A call to arms (against Alex)]

Funniest part is that it takes moderation to prevent/address slot filling, and not the notion of it being scummy, frowned upon, and mocked by a majority of the community.

[Implement Pending Changes Before End of War?]

All but the Baseball cap, yeah, go ahead

[We need to address the Elephant in the room...]

Just use Locutus? It gives much, much more info 

[Time is Up.]

I guess it’d have been better if we *actually* did this, like the two of ya’ll who are fighting? Or would we have been mocked? Please do tell us the boundaries that we have to adhere to. It’s sad that you can’t take a joke, and I imagine everyone figured someone would make a meme MDP like this. The most ironic part? That the only two blocs that did this recently, are fighting each other, now.

[Time is Up.]

6 minutes ago, Buorhann said:

Oh boy.  Continue the passive aggressive whining about it.

 

Honestly at this point I hope you guys get rolled eventually.

Irony, passive aggressive; whatever you want to call it, mate.

[Time is Up.]

"The Time is Up Agreement"
(In HW or Celestial and get scared for a moment, when you saw this go up? Lol.)

Preamble: In the interest of peace and mutual understanding, the two parties of Clock and Backroom enter into this agreement. Recognizing that at this time there is no Casus Belli between the two parties and as such in an effort to avoid a needless and causeless war, the two parties agree to enter into a mutual agreement of demilitarization. 

Article 1: The two parties, effective of the update of today, June 29, 2022, in game time will not militarize beyond what's a rational MMR.

Article 2: Not dictating what c10's and lower can do, for real, Jesus.

Article 3: During this period of demilitarization in the face of the current ongoing global conflict, the parties pledge to come to the aid of the other if one party comes under the attack of a sphere that is already militarized. 

Article 4: This agreement will expire once the current spheres already engaged in hostility have rebuilt and returned to a standard peacetime MMR.   What do I type here that also sounds sort of pathetic?

Signed, 

Clock, on behalf of Test, all Protectorates, and all Extensions of those associated,
CATA
Co-Leader: HisHolyDecagon
Co-Leader: TigerFire
2iC/Foreign Affairs: Keegoz
Foreign Affairs: Cadn,Codename

Eclipse
Co-Leader: Vein
Co-Leader: Patrick

Aurora
First Explorer: Kan0601
First Explorer: ToxicPepper
Second Explorer: Alex
Chairman of FA: Xi Jinping
Chairman of MA: Jacob Knox

Weeb
General Secretary: Empiur
2iC/Head of FA: Taiga

The Commonwealth
Prime Minister: RightHonorable
Chief of Staff: Lionstar, Jeric
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Christian Dahl
Minister of FA: KillzBob
Home Secretary: Dillon I
Foreign Secretary: Azazel
Deputy Foreign Secretary: SwedenBall

The Wei
Regent: Boris Underground
Regent: (The Definitive) James
Flying General: Penpiko
Flying General: Canter

Carthago
Suffet: Daveth
Elder: Krampus

Bourbon Street

Councilmen: Kiloist, Hannah
Deputy Councilman: Mutedfaith

Chairmen of Public Relations: Arln Nen, Aero
Chairman of Security: The Ringer
Chairman of Finances: Galerion
Chairman of Marketing: Fulcrum

The Residents of Bourbon Street

Legion
Imperator: Istandor 

Consul of Economic Affairs: kiwilliam
Consul of Foreign Affairs: David Ben-Gurion
Consul of Internal Affairs: Nome
Consul of Military Affairs: Micheal Lybrand

Global Alliance & Treaty Organization
Assembly Chairman- Jgoods45
Vice Assembly Chairman - KittenGosCrazy 
Minister of Foreign Affairs- Clancy
The General Assembly

[Content Announcement: Smaller updated, larger update]

9 hours ago, Village said:

 

The ones discussed in the forum post here. At present I believe the dev team decided on a 2mil income cap per day so that's what is implemented on the test server, Prefontaine should announce the final number at some point and I'll make sure that's the one in the game when it's deployed.

Ah glad to hear it; that 3m extra a day that maybe 5 people made should definitely help level the playing field, am I right or what

[Content Announcement: Smaller updated, larger update]

Could we perhaps uh, maybe at least know what the changes to baseball are?

[P&W Mount Rushmore]

Kev - I used to have a massive lack of understanding for what Kev does, but over the last year or two, I’ve more and more realized that he’s a world shaper, beyond what most people are actually capable of pulling off. The amount of focus he’s able to pull and gather is pretty impressive and I’d go as far as to say that there isn’t anyone else who can match that style of FA.

Thalmor - Thalmoria was the first radio show that I actually made an earnest attempt at listening, and, it was obvious that when Thalmor hosts a show, that people will come and listen. He seemingly tried/tries to provide a relatively unbiased opening opinion on things, and I always respected that a lot. And also, who can forget the Subway Girl stories.

WANA - As a newer player (I joined Sep of 2020; just prior to Duck Hunt), I always had a shadowy and backhanded opinion of Syndicate, and with that said, WANA. I always viewed them as the shady, back alley, “we’re playing the game how we want, and we don’t care how it’s perceived” style of play, and I always was intrigued by it. WANA tanked a lot of community attention, and basically seemed to embrace it. I’d say from my side of the PnW world, he was almost personified as a villain of sorts, to which I can’t think of many others who fit that mold.

Keegoz - I believe Keegoz was my first shoulder to shoulder experience with real FA. Being part of decision making, brain storming, and seeing the inner workings of high level FA truly gives me a strong impression that Keegoz is on a higher level than most. I feel that I’ve learnt a lot just by exposure alone, and really can’t imagine that CATA, or Clock for that matter would be in anywhere near the same enjoyable position that we’re in now, if Keegoz wasn’t in the picture.

[A Joint Celestial-Hollywood Announcement]

Glad to see it

[[DoW] The Second Atomic Crusade]

With the HollyRo$e MDP treaty as a deterrent, I simply don't understand how this could've happened. It was supposed to scare low infra nukers away, post war, not invite them to hit even more high infra targets; come on CoA, DoN't YoU gEt It?

[Post-GW24 War Awards Nominations]

Alliance Categories:

Best Fighters: Cataclysm

Worst Fighters: OWR

Most Surprising Entry: UL/HIVE

Best PR: Cataclysm

Worst PR: GATO

Playmaker (In other words, who had the largest impact): Cataclysm

Most Improved: Carthago?

Failed to Meet Expectations: N/A

Best DoW: https://forum.politicsandwar.com/index.php?/topic/33158-dow-your-time-is-up/

Best Blitz: Backroom (specifically against Cataclysm)

Worst Blitz: N/A

 

Player Categories:

Best Fighter: Keynesian

Most Friendly: HannaH

Most Salty: Check image attached

Best Rookie (for those who popped their war cherry): 

Best Troll: Check image attached

Best eLawyer: Daveth (why not)

 

Community Categories:

Best Post: Check image attached

Funniest Post: Check image attached

Saltiest Post: Check image attached

Best Propaganda: Check image attached

Please note that HW STILL not demilitarized to their agreed upon 1350 MMR; before you mention Circus raids, that stuff ended 2 weeks ago!

[[PEACE] Time is up. (Clock vs The Backrooms)]

19 minutes ago, Callisto said:

If so, why wasn't this delineated in the peace treaty itself?

Yeah, coming from the guy that's mad that his signature isn't on the peace treaty; it's definitely true and accurate.
GATO is democratic. I'm going to take a wild leap of faith and say that he was against the vote. Majority rules in a democracy, but it sucks in basically every other way possible. 

[[PEACE] Time is up. (Clock vs The Backrooms)]

1 hour ago, Han Solo said:

Well all of the Gov from GATO was not listed either.  Seems only some people get to be mentioned.

If you're wondering what this ^ is; it's what I was personally given, to use as signatures for GATO.

[[PEACE] Time is up. (Clock vs The Backrooms)]

1 hour ago, Callisto said:

"2a. Eclipse, GATO, and Weebunism mutually agree to work together in the best interest of improving Brown.
2b. CATA, and CTO mutually agree to work together in the best interest of improving Olive."

What exactly does this mean?

Colors were a thing that we (Clock) wanted to improve upon. AKA, the mentioned alliances are just agreeing to work together, post war, on improving the color bonus in a mutual fashion

[[PEACE] Time is up. (Clock vs The Backrooms)]

For times sake, I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

The Clock bloc, and The Backrooms have agreed to Peace! (Officially on 6-11-2022, at DC; 

"TERMS"
1. The Backrooms admits defeat.
2a. Eclipse, GATO, and Weebunism mutually agree to work together in the best interest of improving Brown.
2b. CATA, and CTO mutually agree to work together in the best interest of improving Olive.
3. There will be no NAP;
- No new wars will be permitted to be declared after today's DC.
- Current wars will be permitted to finish naturally.
- Current wars will be permitted to expire.
- Current wars will be permitted to be peaced out. 
(Any of those 3 options are up to the participants of their own war)

Peace has been discussed, acknowledged, and agreed upon by the following bodies and their respective members:



(*Art courtesy of Minesome)
Clock, on behalf of Test, all Protectorates, and all Extensions of those associated,
CATA
Co-Leader: HisHolyDecagon
Co-Leader: TigerFire
2iC/Foreign Affairs: Keegoz
Foreign Affairs: Cadn,Codename

Eclipse
Co-Leader: Vein
Co-Leader: Patrick

Aurora
First Explorer: Kan0601
First Explorer: ToxicPepper
Second Explorer: Alex
Chairman of FA: Xi Jinping
Chairman of MA: Jacob Knox

Weeb
General Secretary: Empiur
2iC/Head of FA: Anri



(*Art courtesy of Pika)
The Backrooms, on behalf of all Protectorates, and all Extensions of those associated,
The Commonwealth
Prime Minister: RightHonorable
Chief of Staff: Lionstar, Jeric
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Christian Dahl
First Lord of the Admiralty: Pericles
Home Secretary: Dillon I
Foreign Secretary: Azazel
Deputy Foreign Secretary: SwedenBall

The Wei
Regent: Boris Underground
Regent: (The Definitive) James
Flying General: Penpiko
Flying General: Canter

Carthago
Suffet: Daveth
Elder: Krampus

Bourbon Street

Councilmen: Kiloist, Hannah
Deputy Councilman: Mutedfaith

Chairmen of Public Relations: Arln Nen, Aero
Chairman of Security: The Ringer
Chairman of Finances: Galerion
Chairman of Marketing: Fulcrum

The Residents of Bourbon Street

Legion
Imperator: Istandor 

Consul of Economic Affairs: kiwilliam
Consul of Foreign Affairs: David Ben-Gurion
Consul of Internal Affairs: Nome
Consul of Military Affairs: Micheal Lybrand

Global Alliance & Treaty Organization
Assembly Chairman- Jgoods45
Vice Assembly Chairman - KittenGosCrazy 
Minister of Foreign Affairs- Clancy
The General Assembly

[State of Baseball]

15 hours ago, Isjaki said:

My apologies for not making an explicit thread and raising a hue and cry about baseball. I sure would have had I known that you would find the will of the majority of the game, which hasn't been explicitly expressed as being equivalent to gaslighting.

Yep, that’s basically how things are supposed to work. I’ll forgive you this time.

 

15 hours ago, Isjaki said:

This game is based on skill, and by keeping baseball as a viable cash generator, me and other players who don't have enough time to invest into baseball are being left behind by those who do. 

So, we should probably remove war, blitzing, market trading, etc? I mean, those all involve a level of time, and it wouldn’t be fair to those who can’t invest as much as others. Again, this baseball “problem” literally generates on average, maybe around 3m a day, with the exception of perhaps 3-5 people that go wild.

(I’m only here to argue with whoever I can find btw)

I agree with the guy above btw; if we’re able to see who is apparently exploiting this to an insane degree, just uh, take action against them, and not use this as a way to kill Baseball. No one here will deny that Pre has hard the biggest hate boner for Baseball for the longest time. Just punish the 3-5 people that are making it such a big and important issue to bring community attention to.

[State of Baseball]

Sort of wild to say that people, and by “people”, I mean maybe… what, 1-7 try hard/sweats are making a whopping potential 8m a day, and we’re wanting to adjust an entire mechanic in the game?

 

Just because others “aren’t”, doesn’t mean that it’s some abuse or exploit across the board. It’s literally, 8m a day at most, and I’m going to assume this is the most extreme example that’s able to be found. 8m a day lol; watch out guys, 8m a day, you know, less than what a c7 raider makes in one raid.

 

And to play advocate, @Who Me I’m sure you’re far from crystal clean hands in this scenario. Certainly if you didn’t play hundreds, if not thousands of games a day through *whatever* means you’re doing it, this wouldn’t even be a topic.

[State of Baseball]

Where are the comments where people are complaining about baseball? I’ve never really seen any actual person bring up baseball of all things, as an issue.

I think raising “issues” because a few people go wild, is almost a form of gaslighting, meanwhile I never see a single soul complain.

If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but who is actually complaining?

(Also, I literally just maxed my team/stadium and have had a lot of fun delving into this little baseball sub-community; really unsure what the big whoop is.)