Dan Sinclair

When are the 'projects' part of this update due to be implemented, roughly?

I actually agree with the general concept that enhancing combat in some way would be cool. I'm also okay with some sort of concept of morale or experience, such as you have in many wargames, where troops run the gamut from inexperienced, green, average, seasoned and elite. And variations of those terms. However, I do not believe that you have thought this particular idea through enough. Because of the way you can buy and sell troops in Politics & War, you are liable to run into the following scenario: Nation 'A' is a C-3 that dutifully spends every day for a month logging in and spending money training their troops. Maybe they spend $30 million on this, assuming training costs $1 million a day. Now they have 45,000 well-trained soldiers. Nation 'B' comes along as a C-5 with 75,000 one-day-old soldiers. Thanks to the training program, Nation 'A' is well within the Nation Score range of Nation 'B' who attacks them. Even if takes a few turns more than the usual 48 hours (because thanks to lack of training Nation 'B' doesn't get 10 Immense Triumphs in a row, perhaps just 7 or 8 ), Nation 'B' still wins and obliterates Nation 'A', who now has 0 soldiers and has lost $30 million down the drain. Does Nation 'A' have to start from scratch, re-training all new troops? Even if not, the numerical odds will always be on the side of Nation 'B'. In general, I am in favor of the fact that you have ideas and enjoy brainstorming, as this shows you are an active member of the community and do wish to help the game grow and expand, but it appears that this particular idea needs a bit more thought and some tweaking to it.

This is actually more interesting than the time I asked ChatGPT to go into the kitchen and get us something to eat. Which to be fair ended with my doorbell ringing and a sandwich delivery from Subway along with a can of motor oil with a straw in it. Tech is amazing.

I was honestly expecting this to be a post about Orbis baseball. . . It was interesting stuff worth pondering.

I understand that sentiment. I've been looking at some old games I haven't played in a few years. Good luck and have fun!

I was going to make my own thread here, then decided I should first swing by other threads and say hello to the last few people who posted. After all, dozens of people join every day, but only one person a month or so posts on the OWF. However, it seems that I am unfortunately too late and that you have gone inactive. Well, lots of people come and go, but I believe yours is a cautionary tale: when joining in on an MMO it is always better to first attempt to be part of the community instead of trying to be isolationist. After all, if you're in the mood to be alone, you probably have many solo games and wargames you can play on Steam. There are people here with posts that have a few meager replies and there are posts with thousands of views and many replies, but all have in common this: if the person introducing themselves indicates that they are more concerned with solo raiding of inactive nations or otherwise growing their nation in solitude, they invariably end up going inactive themselves. The ones who stay invariably are the ones who join alliances. (I'm talking new players; some reroll with seasoned experience may now be off solo for a bit being bitter or salty, but that person first got their experience in an alliance. Someone being their own worst enemy is a topic for another day.) Of course, sometimes people pick the wrong alliance, and then they go inactive because they are either not meshing well with the part of the community they've joined or they're dealing with an alliance culture too different from what they are actually looking for, but this can be remedied with some difficulty by moving to another alliance. (Well probably easier if moving within the same bloc or sphere, but more difficult if it appears that you've either been poached or it looks like you are moving to an alliance to spy on them.) At any rate, at least these people are trying to be part of the community. And with 600 alliances, there are enough unique and fringe alliances to satisfy anyone. There are pirate alliances, raider alliances, econ alliances, democracies, meritocracies, roleplaying alliances, alliances that invite Alan to look at evil Discord channels; something for everyone! Odds are that if you are reading the OWF you are in an alliance already, but if you're a truly new player, take my advice: you will get the most out of this game if you join an alliance and then attempt to involve yourself in that community. Some do this by joining gov at various levels, some do it by chatting all over the Discord (or Slack) or playing games with the other members but the more involved you are, the more likely you are to stay active. ============================================ Yes, there are probably a few counterexamples of C41s who spent 7 years alone and thriving, or about people who are their own worst enemy and ended up outcasts and pariahs, or tales of good people in bad alliances that stole their banks or otherwise abused them, but I stand by what I said: in general, the more involved you are, the more likely you are to stay active.

I think it may take a bit more work and brainstorming, but it's a fine idea and would add some much welcome variety to the game. Personally I'd like to see something like a random tourism event. Perhaps positively effecting commerce or revenue for a particular continent depending on the season.

The game rules don't say "Nations on the same network can trade as long as it's only a few million." Rather they say: "Nations on the same network can not trade with each other or through a 3rd party." Therefore regardless if Karen and O-I-G are a multi or just real-life friends or brothers, whatever is going on here appears to allegedly violate either game rules 2, 3 or both. (Using Alliance Banks to evade trade restrictions imposed on nations on the same network is a bannable offense.) They may be a multi, based on the timing of these events, but I'll leave that to you to research. What seems iron-clad though is the fraudulent banking.

My nation is about as old as yours, within a few days either way. When I started there was a message from Castle Camelot, one of the Camelot alliances saying that they don't require Discord. I absolutely don't know if they are good or bad, so this is not an endorsement, but I remember getting the message from Lance Armstrong. Well, wherever you go, good luck and enjoy yourself-- this game is all about the community!

I won't pretend I have the time or experience as a game dev to know if these are good ideas or not-- others will probably be along to offer opinions-- but I commend you for pondering the game and considering ways to improve or change it. That shows that you're motivated and enthusiastic. And you're in Camelot, which if I understand what I heard on Thalmor radio last night, that means Epi trusts you less than if you were in Rose or Yarr. He was rather insistent on that point and said it 17 times that he only trusted and respected the members of Rose and Yarr. (I may have misunderstood him; Deca and Thorin and others kept interrupting him, so don't quote me.) Even so, you're motivated and enthusiastic, and that's a good thing. To address your final point: I can't speak on the first seven points as I'm not a game dev and don't know enough about coding or game balance, but I can address point #8. There are plenty of Discord games you can play besides Dank Memer, such as Fishing game or a Taco game. Perhaps Epi will add some such game channels to Camelot. Or he will add a chess channel. We have one in Serene Wei. Or maybe there are other activities in your aa Discord you can participate in. This game is all about the community; find ways to join and interact with others, or you'll be missing out on the best part of this game.

My nation is around 4 or 5 days old so I can't even imagine 1,000 days. That's the better part of 3 years! Congrats to you!

Thanks! That makes sense, Jacob.

I read this and enjoyed it though I have some questions on some details. As an example: Your Turn Enough talking, let’s get building! Your new city needs some infrastructure. Currently, it has 100 infrastructure, let’s upgrade that to 1000. There are two ways to build infrastructure. In the “Buy/Sell Infrastructure” box you can type how much extra infrastructure you want (in this case 900). The other way to build infrastructure is to type “@” before the exact amount of infrastructure you want to end up with (in this case @1000). If I followed this, I would nod my head and type in "900" in the infrastructure box, going directly from 100 to 1000 as you instruct. But I'm sure I've been told by people on Discord to buy in lots of 100 at a time. This sort of thing continues on: it appears your next instruction is to directly and specifically buy 750 land, though again I've been told this isn't ideal. However if buying 750 is indeed cheaper than buying it at 250 three times or 250 and 500, please add that to the tutorial. Am I misunderstanding what you wrote, or is this (the price difference) something that doesn't really matter?

Yes