[[RON Exclusive] Automation And It's Risks]

1 hour ago, darkblade said:

And while having a recruitment bot is great, you are more likely gonna have bottom of the barrel players apply to your alliance, who only applied because they saw your message first or just glanced over it. And if your goal is to get players in your alliance regardless of whether they care or not, then congrats, your membership is gonna be dead soon.

Nice post. This is really my primary area of disagreement. Basically all new players are like this. Finding a naturally good member who suits your alliance who is also brand new to the game is a total crapshoot imo. If you land one of those, you should consider a trip to Vegas, too. It's the responsibility of the alliance to cultivate players who "want to join because they like your alliance culture, style of gov, community, etc."

If we take as given that it is the responsibility of the alliance to cultivate new players in this way, then I don't think there's any downside to a recruiting bot.

[UPN: The Lavender Years [birthday]]

This makes me feel old. Feliz cumpleanos.

[My thoughts on bots and a plea to blanket ban all third party automation and develop the tools inhouse]

13 hours ago, Kosta said:

I find it hard to accept that in order for an alliance to be successful in this game they need a full time programmer to run a bot that does almost every task for their alliance.

the pro move is to have a handful of part-time programmers :serious:

[Return to the OWF, fellow Orbisans]

This is a good and correct opinion. Obviously you can't expect a paradigm shift overnight with respect to the use of forums for conducting those kinds of discussions as opposed to Discord. Generally what it requires is just for people to write shit, which will, because this is (for better or for worse) a community with the ethos of b*tchy middle schoolers, provoke discussion, debate, what have you.

I think there's proof positive of the if-you-post-it-they-will-come mentality w/r/t forum discussions, given that just about anything from the fairly innocuous meta discussion posts to the fairly inflammatory mid-war posts provoke pretty robust discussions. These kinds of games have (and likely always will) draw the kind of players who want to engage in these sorts of public discussions, and the community would do well to enable rather than stifle it.

[War Propaganda Thread]

On 1/26/2022 at 12:34 PM, alyster said:

 

the war for hearts and minds is, after all, the most important part

[War Propaganda Thread]

check out wasowned.net for Real News(tm)

[An Appeal to The Syndicate]

1 minute ago, Krampus said:

NPO would be a useful pointer for shaping your own behaviour

it's honestly pathetic how you've taken this line out of context, and your fixation on this line in particular literally goes to prove his point

[War Propaganda Thread]

dumb

[[DoW] The Dance Card]

8 hours ago, Deulos said:

only one token downvote. you fell off

[[DoW] A Grumpy Old Bastard's Declaration of War]

11 minutes ago, Justin076 said:

I think our justifications for our previous moves were quite rational, and in response to rhetoric and/or actions from GoB. Duck Hunt was a preemptive strike, we didn't swing and miss, we put our hands up before we got suckered. 

Nonetheless, I really can't be bothered to dig into the history or go back and fourth on who's the bad guy. I can appreciate GoB giving some insight upfront as to their motivations since it seems some are still lacking on that (TKR). If it's revenge, in this case the second revenge war, since Duck Hunt was more or less justified by GoB for t$ hitting them during NPOLT I really don't know when it ends. The line has to be drawn at some point. The Syndicate made efforts since the summer, and this is the response we get. The actions speak loudly that GoB simply isn't ready or willing to move on.  

The last war we fought was t$ hitting HW because G/G man bad. How can you credibly say that "oh we'll let bygones be bygones, as long as we get the last laugh"?

 

You don't get to unilaterally decide to bury the hatchet. Feels like the fine folks at the Syndicate would have the social aptitude to understand that.

[[RoH] Lean Wit Me]

2 minutes ago, Leopold von Habsburg said:

My comments apply to his IC persona, I know hes now your ally but I dont see any reason why you should die on this cross for the likes of him lmao.

is this a roman joke

[[RoH] Try a nice cold can of Dr Pepper]

1 minute ago, Evernt said:

No can do, but we can tell you why the Californians are evile.

but i'm not asking for that. i'm asking how you can take Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (Caramel E150d), Phosphoric Acid, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Flavourings Including Caffeine, Sweeteners (Aspartame, Acesulfame K), and a Source of Phenylalanine, and turn it into 23 magical flavors inside 12oz of aluminum. 

 

don't give me proprietary blends, don't give me 'secret formulas'. give me the truth.

[[DoW] The Dance Card]

7 minutes ago, darkblade said:

is this the dancing y'all wanted?
 

 

unironically yes

[[RoH] Try a nice cold can of Dr Pepper]

how do you cram those 23 flavors into that one little can? you will tell us by the end of this.

 

glhf folks

[[RoH] Lean Wit Me]

On 12/12/2021 at 12:19 PM, WarriorSoul said:

why would tS post this self-aggrandizing bullshit when keegoz  wizel already did a good post

 

[[DoW] Containment Procedure 81274 Initiated]

god your theme is so fricken cool

[[DoW] The Dance Card]

the rare good wizel post. must be an important day

[[DoW] A Grumpy Old Bastard's Declaration of War]

6 minutes ago, Agent W said:

Didn't TKR also attack you during Quack?

that was just foreplay to the intense, R-rated hollywood love

[Why are Weebos so terrible?]

Not allowed to let people enjoy things

[TKR's Holiday Charity Donation Drive]

3 hours ago, katashimon13 said:

what if we already swapped from wasting timevolunteering time in this game to volunteering irl >_<

rawr

doesn't count, sorry

[[DoW] IRON Burns some Roses]

1 hour ago, Robert2424 said:

The leader of Rose, Lucianus, attacked our largest member, Deulos on 12/24/2021 01:59 AM in-game time.

thank you Luci, very based

[DANGER SALT DANGER]

On 12/19/2021 at 2:44 PM, Firwof Kromwell said:

Oh my dearest apologies, where's my manners?! Guess I cant shit talk back since yall cant handle any clapback, should have considered how yo ppl would have acted out emotionally so I didn't "heavily mentally" scar someone. Probably should let ya be with those egotistically self projective behaviors attitudes ya lot can never do anything wrong, NOTHING I SWEAR! Def a good idea to let only a certain group of ppl not be a butt of a jk or just criticism only cuz they are PURRRRFECTAAA!!! Alll of this cuz they are self proclaimed to be the best at what they do where all should follow there talent, DEF takin there words, not by actions, bad to judge (even rationally) by actions. Don't trust strangers either, mhmm, even if their piece of info sounds a bit informative/intriguing/funny, it is a stranger judging/commenting on someone they barely know based on their own bias, AND THAT BAD! Must. Remain. Positive. And. Only. Positive. That is good, along with enforcing others by my mood since I & my buds matter most, not people whom barely know me. 

Who has been able to appear in more vcs furthermore actually be in the vc's vocal convo's itself? Who actually puts themselves more at risk in situations to stand there ground rather give up/in?

this is literally illegible

[Why we can't have nice things]

On 12/17/2021 at 5:43 PM, Charles Bolivar said:

I'd say we have 4/5 groups. But the level of actual separation or distinctiveness between them is minimal at best. Nearly every war since NPOLT has developed into a bipolar state of affairs between two opposing globalist coalitions anyway due to secret treaties, private arrangements or just convergent interests etc between the various groupings. This war being a good indicator of where things can go in the future, but again, it's hard to tell about the impact and influence posed by the NAP on the current war and if there hadn't been an NAP, would this war have assumed the traditional dualistic nature where the main 4-5 spheres coalesce together anyway into two opposing sides.

Basically, I don't think we have minispheres yet at all. Proto-minispheres perhaps where we have the beginnings of regionalisation within the treaty web , but we still have a fair bit to go. Truth be told I think there is a proclivity amongst most alliances to utilise "minispheres" as a disguise for the pursuing of hegemonic goals and the lessening of potential strategic threats which affect their own dominance. In that sense it kind of echoes the rise of the Delian league under Athens' stewardship in a manner of thinking.

In order to have true minispheres, we need to have at the very least a distinct number of groups who are at least on comparable strength terms to one another, and who will not take part in global wars which don't affect their own interests . We simply aren't there yet. Getting there but still a fair way to go as can be witnessed by the current war in which mystery and oasis are simply being slaughtered for lack of a better term across the board due to differences in membership composition etc. There is no actual incentive right now for oasis and mystery to remain at their current sphere strength because to do so simply opens them up to the risk of future defeats. They clearly need access to stronger allies if they wish to stand a chance in future conflicts, but attempting to do so will likely lead them back to their current situation. So in that sense I still think the game has a fair bit to go before we can truly say we have reached a new 'meta' of in-game balance in regards to minispheres.

Personally I think we need to see an in-game mechanic which actively encourages the treaty web to fragment further. Utilising geographical placement on the in-game map or even team colour so as to act as an incentive for conflicts to evolve away from globalist tendencies might be the better option. Of course that would require significant work to the code so I have no idea if it's feasible. But I don't believe relying on alliance leaderships to achieve a true minisphere state of being is viable as the alliances with weaker member compositions are naturally going to band together to seek some form of security against the stronger alliances, with this banding together to be in turn viewed as a threat to the dominance of stronger AAs and spheres. It's human nature at the end of the day and relying on leaders, whose authority rests on providing security to their members, to take actions which lessen their own relative security is always going to be unreliable at best. We have seen this on numerous occasions (infact every occasion I think) from NPOLT and even this war itself is much the same if we take into account the treaty which allegedly kicked off the war itself.

In short, lots of work to do yet before we get where we want to be. 

Eh. I mean realistically, the current game state is as dynamic as I've seen in the predominant nation sim in yeeeears. Consider the major globals since NPOLT:

 

- Quack v HM/Swamp/Rose

- Quack v Swamp

- HW vs Rose/Oasis/MysInc

- HW vs BW/Rose

- BW/Clock vs Oasis/MysInc

 

This, from my perspective, shows a fair amount of dynamism in the politics of the game. I agree it isn't perfect, but the above clearly demonstrates a trend away from any sort of bipolar world as has so often cursed this game and its immediate predecessor. Perhaps true "minispheres" is a pipe dream because it requires 100% authentic cooperation, but even were that goal itself to be unreachable, it doesn't preclude a more lively game.

[DANGER SALT DANGER]

i thought mass raids were supposed to be

 

massive? idk

[[DoW] I Mean It]

why would tS post this self-aggrandizing bullshit when keegoz already did a good post