AiOS

They can just dip them in for a wee-little time, just enough to make the point "Bad assassin! Bad!"

OOC: This is quite literally the definition of "overkill."

Electronica makes the following as its one and only claim (exactly 50 provinces).

Proposal for a new Espionage Operation called "CYBERATTACK". REASONING It's kinda crazy that National Projects are immune to warfare, especially since nearly half are war-related. EFFECTS A single successful cyberattack will temporarily disrupt the function of a random National Project in the target/victim nation for three turns (6 hours) if nations are not at war with each other, but only two turns (4 hours) if nations are at war with each other. SUCCESS/COST RATES Success and cost rates are similar to sabotaging/attacking Nukes. LIMITS ON USAGE Would constitute one of your daily Spy Ops.

o/ The Third Bloc

Welcome to Orbis.

Athretvari’s new digital input/output hubs (ports) prepare for surge in trade. CPU — The Government of Athretvari has given final approvals to the city development plans (CDPs) submitted by the city-states of Qwerty and Wysiwyg. The CDPs represent the last two chapters of the government’s “Infra-1900(II)†National Development Plan (NDP-19/II), the Athretvar equivalent of a five-year plan except spanning a particular quantity of national infrastructure development as opposed to a period of time. NDP-19(II) is the second to cover the upgrade of each city-state’s infrastructure from 1800 to 1900. The “II†series of NDPs specifically cover the massive reconstruction of infrastructure lost during Athretvari’s simultaneous conflicts with four nations within the Nuclear Knights. NDP-20(II), covering infrastructure upgrades from 1900 to 2000 throughout the Pixelate, will be the last in the “II†series. Along with upgrading each city-state’s infrastructure to 1900, the two CDPs also authorize the construction of a total of 12-thousand housing units to accomodate approximately 20-thousand new citizens and residents, and the expansion of state-owned Petrovari refined fuels, gasoline, and plastics production facilities, as well as the newly formed AthMetal’s steel manufacturing operations. In an effort to diversify Athretvari’s exports and move the nation’s products “up the value chainâ€, Petrovari and AthMetal have been given approvals to begin refined petroleum (gasoline) and steel exports starting in 2006 after national reserve requirements are met. The approvals come as the Orbis raw commodities markets are currently facing price-per-unit slumps, harming overall Athretvar revenues from crude oil, uranium and iron ore exports. AthMetal also received a licence to import a limited quantity of coal, a rare resource in Athretvari that is vital in the production of steel. ATHRETVARI DEFENSE INDUSTRIES GROUP (ADIG) REQUESTS MUNITIONS PRODUCTION AND LEAD IMPORT LICENSES CPU — Athretvari Defense Weekly is reporting that ADIG, the nation’s primary state-owned defense conglomerate and contractor has requested licences to construct and operate 8 munition factories in the government’s upcoming “Infra-2000(II)†National Development Plan (NDP-20/II) currently being debated and drafted within the Corps of Specialists-Select, the government’s official “think-tankâ€. Hoping to take the lead in Commander-in-Chief Tyro Leif’s economic revitalization “Make-in-Athretvari†plan and his ambitious top-secret “Anti-Arcanologic†weapons program to counter magic, ADIG seeks to begin indigenous production of the new weapon systems and their specialized munitions within Athretvari starting with the next NDP. The request is contraversial insofar as it also requires the importation of large quantities of lead, a raw natural resource lacking within Athretvari. ADIG has been rumored to be in talks with defense contractors from two other nations. The talks apparently surround the joint research and develop of sophisticated anti-arcanologic (anti-magic) weapon systems and munitions. The company did not return requests for more information on the talks and refused to identify the two nations in question. However, rumors are swirling in Cpu that Nova Scotia’s Tetravaal Industries is one of the companies. The other company is believed to be located in Narvan. RCBC could not confirm the rumors.

Static cling.

The mental mechanics that go into deciding to write this amazes me. lol.... What's the short text version of "who cares if you did or didn't"? lol...

You do realize that this is the actual way it works, right? Yes, overtime you take back every dollar and give them back the new versions, in your case 1,500 new dollars per every one they hand in. (Sue because they get more? Weird people you have.) In a modern society, where people dont carry much or any cash, but instead use credit cards and have bank accounts, this can be done literally overnight at the central bank-bank interface level. (Just like all of the Eurozone countries did when switching over to the Euro.)

OOC: Attempt at explaining Athretvari’s new “look†a little. IC: Opka, capital city-state of Athretvari. ========== Tyro was tired. He was paying little attention and had no idea what was soon in store for him and his nation. He turned from the setting sun and looked to Science Secretary Hycintho Kyhrn. The man was rambling on about something or another called “the Player.†The two men and four hand-picked agents from the ADF Special Corps’ elite “Joxo†(assassins) division rode in a large glass elevator as it glided down along the western façade of the Ministry of Arts overlooking the newly constructed Naval Corps shipyards in Opka. The port was in the last stages of being rebuilt since the the capital city was struck by several terrorist nuclear attacks targeting infrastructure vital to the ADF Air- and Naval-Corps over a year ago. Five Orca-Class warships from the Opka Naval Task Force were crawling with seamen busy preparing the ships to join ten others from Ythdremâ. Tyro thought the 15 ships together under the command of Admiral-General Pai Ge would form an impressive mini-fleet. They would soon sail north to participate in Nova Scotia’s East Asian Naval Training Exercises near the Kamchatka peninsula. “... like magic!†Kyhrn was waving his arms and gesturing toward the sky. Tyro had seen the terrific potential of magic to destroy and disturb the natural world, and in response had been quick to order the development of extremely dangerous, experimental and expensive anti-arcanologic weapons to counter its growing usage and threat, but now Kyhrn was telling him there was something much more terrifying about Orbis... The world as he knew it wasn’t real, and he, along with every other Athretvar, weren’t anything more than figments in the imagination of some demented, insane demi-god doing no more than “playing a game.†The last thing Tyro needed now was a mad man in charge of his nation’s most top secret weapons research and development programs. He wanted Kyhrn to explain his latest “discovery†all once more before gesturing to the Joxo agents to subdue the man and haul him away to a sanitarium. “You call it the Player, this supernatural being that supposedly exists in another ’dimension’ beyond Orbis?†“Yes.†“And this Player created Athretvari and her peoples out of pure thought? And continues to this day to dictate our destinies and define our very existence?†Kyhrn smiled. He had had a vision, no it was an epiphany, while taking a bubble-bath late yesterday evening. It had taken him nearly three hours of trying to explain quantum computing and interdimensional mechanics. And he often felt he was just rambling on incoherently, but the Athretvar Commander-in-Chief seemed to finally understand what he was saying. “Yes, it is called the Player! Or rather He is called the Player. Athretvari and all its people are nothing more than constructs within this Player’s mind. He is playing a type of simulation and controlling every decision we make and action we take. He writes our history, invents our language, religion, and cult...†Tyro waved him silent, “Can we communicate with it, Him, with this Player?†“Ahh... Yes. Well, at least I think we can.†Kyhrn felt excited, he had been pondering the very same question, and he had a crazy theory as to how to prove it. ========== An hour later, deep beneath the Ministry of Arts in a section Tyro had never before seen, called the Special Projects A-73 Testing Laboratories, the Copernicus-XT2005 was calculating the total number of alternate universes it may very well be teleported to simultaneously if it executed the experiment and nearly crashed in a massive logic panic. Tyro watched as Kyhrn tried to calm the giant computer, “Heh! It can be a bit testy at times.†It hummed back to life and began running a long diagnostics test in a futile attempt to keep Kyrhn at bay. “I don’t have time for this.†Tyro growled impatiently. Kyhrn feverishly typed commands into the computer. Suddenly a great ball of light appeared in the center of the room. Tyro was immediately surrounded by the Joxo agents as the ceiling and the countless tons of dirt and steel above them vanished to expose a bright blue sky. The Commander-in-Chief was in no mood for light shows or games, he was a busy man after all. He turned to Kyhrn and shouted, “What trickery is this?†Kyhrn giggled madly, “It worked! I cant believe it actually worked!†Tyro pushed past the Joxo agents and grabbed Kyhrn, “What is this nonsense?†Suddenly great claps of thunder boomed over them. Kyhrn fell to the ground trembling and mumbling to himself. Tyro looked up and thought he saw the figure of a winged man descending from the sky. He reached up to block his eyes but the light burned the skin on his hands. “What.. who are you?!†Tyro shouted over the sound of howling winds and a chorus of angelic voices singing “Halleluya! Halleluya!†“I am the Player,†the figure said with a mighty voice, “the creator and genesis of Athretvari, the force and energy of thy nation and people. I am the cause of thy being, thy purpose, and thy reason. Thou hath called Us and in Our love We have come to thee.†All the Joxo agents trained their rifles on the figure. Tyro raised his hand ready to give the order to fire. They fell to the ground as if dead. Tyro laughed nervously, “What is this bullsh...†The voice thundered again, “I am the Pla...†Tyro interrupted, “Yes, yes. The Player. And I am...†The earth quaked, Tyro watched as the remaining floor and walls around him began to crack. “Shut up Tyro Leif, Commander-in-Chief of Athretvari! Thou hast called upon Us and now offended Us with thy ignorance of Our glory. We, the Player, being ever benevolent even in the midst Our rage, commands that the Truth of thy existence be known onto thee. Thus, We recreate thee and thy world without the fancy of flesh or stone, that thou may be more humble before Us in the future. Pay heed to Our mercy.†The voice thundered once more, “Now behold, thy true world.†Everything around Tyro began to pixelate and reformed to expose a strange digital landscape. Tyro felt a surge of energy rush up from the ground and course through his body. He looked at his hands in awe and horror as they exploded into a million tiny pixels and reformed again glowing red hot. He cried out as shockwaves of pain burned through him. His body burst into billions of pixels and then reformed. Tyro cried out, “What’s happening!?†He looked up and saw the figure ascending back into the sky. He clenched his fists and raged, “I will destroy you! Who are you?!†The figure smiled, “I am the Player...â€

Not sure why my claiming four provinces needed a warning when its ok for everyone to claim twenty or thirty territories all around me. lol... You can remove Athretvari and its territories from the map.

Instead of purposefully causing inflation, which is a reduction in your population's purchasing power, simply have your central bank revalue and reissue your national currency at a desired exchange rate, known as a fixed exchange rate. The Central Bank of Athretvari issues the Yen and values it at AÂ¥1 = $0.01. (Basically one Athretvar yen is worth one Orbis penny.)

To develop better relations with Nova Scotia, our dear friends and allies, and with other nations in the East Asia region, the Government of Athretvari desires to participate in the East Asian Naval Training Exercises - Kamchatka, NS 2005. If agreed to by the Nova Scotian government, the Athretvari Defense Forces Naval Corps (ADF-NC) will send the Athretvar “Ythdremâ†Naval Task Force consisting of 15 ADF-NC Orca-Class Warships, details below. The task force will be commanded by Admiral-General Pai Ge.

Shame concerning the drastic reduction in OBL revenue. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT As it may be known or not, I create many of the OBL team logos. Prices will sadly need to be drastically increased to compensate for the drastically reduced revenues from playing. I'm certain this will have a drastically negative effect on the number of logos requested, and thus reduce the credits used to assign them to your teams, but we don't want to make too easy for Alex to make any money if we can't, do we?

The Athretvar Government desiring better diplomatic and defensive relations with the nations of Orbis does request membership in the OCSO.

NIVÃRIMA (Orbis 20 Feb 2005) — Red Castle Broadcasting Corporation (RCBC) begins broadcasting again. It has been more than five months since 12 thermonuclear devices were detonated in a series of devastating nuclear attacks upon Athretvari in September and October of 2004 by a rogue terrorist organization known only as the Nuclear Knights (NK). The attacks, which killed more than 1.48 million people in seven Athretvar cities, took place after Athretvari, in what the Corps Parliament (the nation’s lower legislature house) has since pronounced was a violation of the nation’s official external policy of neutrality, declared war and began offensive conventional military operations upon four leading members of the NK. The declarations occurred after the NK announced hostilities and threatened nuclear strikes upon members of the Green Protection Agency (GPA) in an attempt to extort 1.5 billion from the nominally neutral alliance. While the Athretvar Defense Forces (ADF) executed flawless immense victory after immmense victory against the nuclear armed terrorists, the NK was successful in launching a dozen catastrophic blows against Athretvari. The attacks, while striking and destroying massive chunks of infrastructure and several vital improvements, mostly killed the innocent civilian residents of Athretvari’s greatest cities. In two major acts of defiance against the terrorists, large sums of cash looted from their treasuries by the ADF were used in the midst of the conflict to rebuild military loses, reconstruct parts of attacked cities and even begin the construction of Bodhisatvani, Athretvari’s eighth great city-state, which shall serve as the administrative capital of the Filipino Palawan Island District of the Natural Territories of Athretvari. General Luzhe Anké, ADF Deputy Chief-of-Staff reported that the ADF Ground Corps suffered 52,841 casualties, the ADF Tank Corps suffered 1141 casaulties, the ADF Air Corps lost 36 aircraft due to the loss of two airfields, and the ADF Naval Corps lost 10 warships when two naval shipyards were destroyed. Gen. Anké said that the ADF was successful in quickly helping to erect and sustain brutal naval blockades against the four nuclear powers. Coupled with sustained ground attacks to sap the opponents’ cash resources, the blockades effectively began to starve the terrorist states of vital revenue. Gen. Anké reported that the ADF destroyed over 8,465 in enemy infrastructure, killed over 193 thousand enemy soldiers, and destroyed over 12 and a half thousand enemy tanks. ADF Special Corps also suffered an undisclosed number of losses, but reportedly were capable of killing numerous spies and destroying four nuclear devices before the terrorists were able to detonate them. ATHRETVARI LEAVES GPA The Corps Parliament declared in a sternly worded resolution immediately after hostilities with the NK concluded, “Insofar as each member of the alliance is committed to the defense of the other, the Government of Athretvari defines by its very nature and being that the Green Protection Agency (GPA) is not and cannot be ’neutral’, and that its refusal to partake within the politics of Orbis does not make it immune from said politics, and that Athretvari’s participation therein is dangerously hypocrital and destructive to the nation’s reputation and national security. Athretvari does remove itself from the GPA and renounce the external policy of neutrality.†The Athretvar government informed the GPA that as part of its exit process it would not seek compensation for the estimated 80 million in infrastructure damage alone sustained during the war, and that two basic grants received by Athretvari in the previous 30 RL-days totaling just over 7.2 million were considered by the Athretvar Government as paid back in kind and full. Members of the GPA leadership initially rejected the terms of the nation’s exit from the alliance, and began hostile diplomatic acts against Athretvari as it sought to apply to new alliances. However the government in Nivárima, the new Athretvar capital, made firm in several private communiqués to GPA officials that it had no intention of allowing Athretvari to suffer any further after the conflict and considered the issue closed. RECONSTRUCTION CONTINUES WITH NEW NAMES Normalcy is beginning to return to many of Athretvari’s beautiful canals, plazas and streets as the nation continues its long independent drive to reconstruct from the devastation brought by the NK’s horrific attacks. As radiation in the major urban centers drops below dangerous levels, expats returning and tourists visiting Athretvari will encounter a new country. Not only are new and modern architectual wonders replacing the charred remains of the nation’s old neo-renaissance buildings, but the names of all of the major cities have been “naturalized†to Athretvar names. The change is in line with Commander-in-Chief Tyro Leif’s desire to remove all vestiges of the nation’s pre-independence ASEAN influences in a nationalistic effort to bolster the country’s cultural identity.

TALES FROM THE CITY OF MARIA (June First, RL Reckoning) “His name is Giordano Bruno.†“Who?†Oleg craned his neck trying unsuccessfully to look over the slowly moving crowd as it snaked into the giant antechamber of Maria’s Scientific Humanist temple. It wasn’t until he and Jenna had reached the temple’s massive iron doors that he could see a fire raging in a pit near the center of the antechamber. In the center of the fire there stood a marble statue of man bound to a stake. It had long been blackened and pitted by the fire. Its face frozen in pain, crying in eternal agony. Jenna could sense Oleg was nervous about attending the ceremony, she smiled and squeezed his hand. They followed the crowd as it moved toward the pit. Oleg watched as people reached out and touched a high iron gate separating them from the flames only to pull back quickly. Jenna leaned in and kissed him, “It won’t be that bad.†She lead him upto the gate. Oleg looked at her hand in his, she had a small dark mark on her middle knuckle. He glanced at the hand of an elderly man near him and realized the man also had the mark. Looking around he saw nearly ever Athretvar had such a mark. The only people without one seemed just as nervous and interested in the burning statue and fire as he was. Tourists, he thought, like himself. He had met Jenna only two nights before on his very first night in town. They had fallen in love almost instantly as the young often do. Oleg was a political-science undergrad from Siberian Nova Scotia on a brief break from school. His parents splurging on an “educational semester†in Athretvari to immerse himself in the language and culture before starting his real studies back home. Jenna reached out and touched the gate with her middle knuckle. She pulled her hand away quickly rubbing the dark mark, a burn, “You dont have to touch it, it’s really hot. We do it to get a small sense of his suffering. He is one of our religion’s greatest saints. Burned for professing that the sun was an ordinary star just like the other stars in the night sky, and that those stars too had worlds similar to Earth in orbit around them. Of course, it would take centuries to prove him correct.†Jenna seemed truly saddened. Oleg couldn’t look away from the man’s eyes. They seemed to stare back at him as if pleading for Oleg to untie him and save him from the flames. He decided to reach out and touch the gate thinking to himself as he looked one last time upon the statue’s crying face, “If you only knew.†----- Jenna handed Oleg a plain, thin white book with many colorful ribbons inside serving as bookmarks. The cover simply read, These Are the Books of Calculations and Conversations He opened it and began to read from the beginning, curious of the Athretvar origin story, if they had one at all... I AM I. The First Equation is Written. The First Query Posed, and the First Answer Defined. Thus I Am One. The First Dimension is Measured. And All that Be From One and All that Be Part of One. Thus, All Dimensions Are Measured. I am All. And, All is Our Name. Thus We Are All, and Part of All, and Of All, and From All, and To All. The Second Equation is Written. We Are the Being of All, And All that Be Of that Being. Thus are We the Being that is the Beginning. And All Being that is since the Beginning. And the Being that is the End. And, Matter is the Name of Our Being. The Third Equation is Written. We Are The Motion of All, And All that Be Of that Motion. Thus are We the Motion that is the Beginning. And All Motion that is since the Beginning. And the Motion that is the End. And, Time is the Name of Our Motions. The Fourth Equation is Written. We Are The Knowledge of All of All, And All that Be Of that Knowledge. Thus are We the Knowledge that is the Beginning. And All Knowledge that is since the Beginning. And the Knowledge that is the End. And, Force is the Name of Our Knowledge. The Fifth Equation is Written. “Oleg. Oleg.†He looked up to see everyone standing around him. Jenna motioned for him to stand. The preacher stood before a great round stained-glass window of a golden sun disk just as the real sun was setting behind it. Oleg had never seen anything so beautiful in his life. The preacher raised his hands, “We are the Flesh of the Universe, our God. We are its muscle, its bone, and its mind. Onto us is given the power to be and move within God, and to give God definition. Glory be onto Humanity, the Children of God.†He opened a large white book, “Let us turn to the black ribbon, and read from the beginning of the left page.†Oleg tore his eyes away from the sunset and opened the book again, pulling on the black ribbon. He wondered why the preacher hadn’t simply said which chapter and verse or page to turn to when he realized there were no page numbers. Jenna giggled and whispered, “The author purposefully didn’t include page numbers, chapters or anything like that. He, or she, no one knows who wrote it, apparently didn’t want any part of the books to be taken out of context and so tried to make it difficult to reference just a page or section.†Oleg flicked the black ribbon. Jenna smiled, “That’s what the author wanted, not the preachers.†And after Adam did tell Eve of a tree within the forest, that had beneath it a great beast lying without life, and that in its mouth he did see a part of the fruit from the tree. He told her that it had ceased to live after having eaten the fruit of the tree. Many days later Eve did come upon the same tree within the forest, and there were the bones of the great beast lying beneath it. And from the jawbones of its mouth did grow a sapling. Eve looked near the sapling and there saw another fruit from the tree that had fallen and watched as a small worm did emerge from the ground and began to eat at the fruit. And then Eve thought, “If this worm does eat of this fruit and still lives, then the fruit from this tree must be good.†Eve picked from a fruit from the tree and bit into it, and she did not die. Oleg looked up at the great stained-glass window and was temporarily blinded by a bright flash of light. He could hear people starting to panic when suddenly the entire temple exploded inward. On June first, RL Reckoning, a nuclear device was detonated by terrorists within the great city-state of Maria, killing 92,108 people.

Hmm, maybe they could be given a lower than normal success rate to off-set? I'm not thinking more than a million or two could be stolen, but there should be consideration for bank security and of course if target has its own spies to counter/defend against the theft.

There are two real-life spy ops missing from the list— Counterpropaganda, which will drastically reduce target nation's daily recruitment ability. Good counter against the Propaganda national project. Grand Theft, which is basically stealing part of the target nation's treasury (like hacking/breaking into their central bank and swiping a huge chunk of cash. Not like James Bond isnt always stealing something or another.)

LENNOXANNI (Orbis 2 August 2004) — Athretvars across the nation celebrated yesterday after Minister of Cities Mor Freima announced the completion of major construction operations in Athretvari’s seventh great city-state on the northern coast of the Indonese island of Sumatra. Just southwest of the Swedish East-Asian colony of Singapore, Lennoxanni will serve as the capital of Athretvari’s newly acquired Natural Territories. Strategically located at the southern end of the Straits of Malacca, the city has been designated as a major Athretvar trading center with Narvan, Sweden, Khevin, and most of the other nations located in South Azia, Afreca, and Europa. Minister of Cities AG Mor Freima attended celebrations in Lennoxanni after announcing the city-state’s “openingâ€. Minister of Cities AG Mor Freima said that to enhance ongoing efforts to improve relations between Athretvari, Narvan, and Nova Scotia; Narvanese- and Nova Scotian-flagged vessels have been granted special permission to utilize, as if they were domestically-flagged vessels, Lennoxanni’s anchorages, harbors, docks and warehousing facilities for the conduct of trade. He also noted that both countries were invited to utilize the city for joint maritime and air patrols and security operations with Athretvari in the waters and air-spaces of the Hindian Ocean. As Athretvari is currently at peace, the city will be defended by 12 thousand soldiers, a thousand tanks, 72 aircraft, and 12 warships. Additional Athretvar Defense Forces bases and facilities have been constructed for the ready call up of reservists to fully arm and defend the city in event of an emergency.

They should at least be rendered useless when a player (for example) has cities at only 10 infra with no power. How can it be logical that they can continue to build weapons (like nukes) and fight in a condition like that? (I've seen a ridiculous example of it recently.)

Sheepy's gone?! That's the last straw. I quit.