[What Was It All For?]

16 minutes ago, Buorhann said:

I’ve noticed you forgot to mention about your threats to dox players yourself.

This has been misconstrued.

I warned people to change their IPs and to cease registering fake accounts on a website I own and run.  If you go to a 3rd party site to harass someone have the smarts to:

1) Not use your own email.
2) Don't use your real birthday
3) Don't allow your IP to be tracked because you're on mobile.

A handful of people wanted to troll me and I now have some of their IP address that makes me the bad guy? They could of even deleted the accounts! Instead they decided to continue.

Alex has some of your IP addresses. You going to blame him for having them because you signed up for P&W?

1 hour ago, Popat said:

You attack other people and when you receive retaliation , you are crying? I don't like when someone attacks others and inflicts harm upon their moral character for no reason but you reap what you sow. You accused me along with @Mac, @Tiberius Aurionand 5 other micro leaders of sexual harassment in Royal Orbis News. 

I've spoken to Mac's victim and have screenshots of that.

I'm not here to argue with you. I can refute everything, provide mounds of screenshots and evidence until I'm blue in the face but all P&W does to argue is say "nuh uh". 

[What Was It All For?]

I didn't get a chance to do this the first time so I'm going to take my time with it now.
Anything in BOLD is the appreciation of either myself, the government of Black Skies or the membership.

TLDR; 4 Years of History into a single post. It's for those that care.

Black Skies has been the butt end of the joke for years. Starting from the acronym that people termed us as the "Bullshit Alliance" it quickly spiraled into faked screenshots, IRL harassment, death threats based on sexual orientation, doxxing and the leaking of IRL addresses to news sites. As soon as a player applied to or joined Black Skies a mark was placed on them to be the center of harassment and ridicule. Black Skies was built for the purpose of providing a safe haven from the taxes, strict rules and needless regulation of the top alliances. It started as one person alliance, myself, and grew into a Top 30 alliance while all the while people complained about my "inability to lead" and thought I was a "poison in the community".

The Lost Empire, under Atlan, didn't think that. Atlan knew that I'd hit bumps as it was the first alliance I'd lead and still took a chance on me. I looked up to Atlan with an immense desire to have both the affection of my members and the patience to deal with any issues like he had. I saw him as my P&W dad. Black Skies and the belief we held would not have survived without Atlan's tireless willingness to aid us. We probably would of rode through the entire game with TLE had Atlan not left the game for his brief stint. As soon as Atlan left and TLE was given the opportunity to move to a new Bloc they decided to cut us, while still keeping United Ummah.

Shoutout to United Ummah, an alliance that told Black Skies members that "The attacks on 9/11 was punishment from God on the sins of America". While allied to them under TLE, UU's low FA told our government member how to slit their wrists to bleed out faster and demanded I remove them from the alliance because of their sexual orientation.
This was the alliance that TLE preferred to keep. 

We had to bounce around from alliance to alliance, war after war, until somebody was willing to give us a chance. We made 2 Blocs, Liberty and Holy Sea, in which Black Skies was mocked and ridiculed for. Both Blocs while we entered with the hopes of prospering, fell apart due to a different alliance destroying us. Epi couped Pantheon and broke Liberty Bloc and Beans demanded we fight a war for Sanctuary and then less than 24 hours later peace out of a war, ending Holy Sea.

When Orbis Crowned News staff like Jova and Merky Mo decided to fake screenshots of myself either leaking OPSEC or using racial slurs (after members from HORDE had already faked images of me claiming I was a pedophile) it wasn't anything new. The same people attacking my character with fakes because they couldn't find any legitimate fault escalated as Krampus began spreading it over Royal Orbis News. The real life consequences that occurred from that put myself, my then girlfriend and my sister into a deep mental health spiral. Tugger and Rainbow had the courage to assist me with screenshots and photos to track down Merky Mo as the egregious culprit. My rage at Tugger for sharing the image blurred my thinking but he did everything in his power to fix the situation.

Black Skies was beside itself as we began being mass messaged by a few burner discord accounts. At one point my old Discord account had over 15,000 DMs from these accounts. I deleted. I couldn't continue moving through the day like nothing was wrong and my members being besieged by hate for actions that didn't concern them.

But people knew I still had value and was able to help the community. People like Chad and Lysander still asked me for help with checking out multi rings that I could easily do with a program that was made for Lord of the Rings Online. When Uriah the Fox and Killzbob decided to gut Black Skies (then Thunderstruck) and merge them into The Elites a plea was made to return to the game. So The Coven was born.

United Purple Nations took The Coven in and once again, I as a single person, brought The Coven into a Top 30 position. Using our alliance to punish smaller alliances that held anti-Semitic beliefs, abused members or sexually harassed them, The Coven with Lysander and Vexynn grew into the "Micro-Manager" that we wanted to be. Cordonia, Titan and Laser Kiwi took the reins and helped the alliance to dominate in the lower tiers. Our success as an alliance would of continued no doubt had my identity not been outed. DeeC went to OCN and once again OCN brought my identity into play, a recurring theme that would continue over the next 2 years.

Since then it's been a roller coaster of people joining Black Skies, loving it but then as soon as they leave, bash the alliance for either my leadership or the way we operated. The Fighting Pacifists and House Stark would be our only two allies that appreciated what we offered without being hung up over the name of it's leader. Under Damien I was praised by the game, the name "Alan" though brought out the worst in the game.

So what was it all for?

We learned a lot. Black Skies and myself would like to leave with what we learned from the game so that others that come after us don't make the same mistakes we've made:
 

1. Never Help People
   
   When women would call for hours on end complaining about their boyfriend not caring, hang up. If you don't you'll lose allies. Your sympathy and empathy earn you nothing. I'm still sorry Sval and Order of the White Rose.
   When new alliances ask you for a protectorate, decline them. Those prots will backstab you first chance they get and move to a larger alliance. Always help your alliance first. All other alliances not treatied with you are the enemy. Thank you Nokia and The Coal Mines for taking out the trash.
   When people beg you to save an alliance from merging, kill it. The corpse of that alliance will poison the community. Don't give assistance to an alliance that can't assist itself. Thank you Yarr for stepping up against Tiberius and Bank of Orbis.
   
   This game does not care about rule breaking, social abuse or hate speech. Alex wants children to play this game when in reality P&W is rated 18+. If you attempt to help someone you will be crucified for it.
    
2. Accept Your Faults, Even When You Have None
   
   When you're losing a war, take the blame for everything for peace. Nobody cares about the truth. You taking the "High Road" will lead to your members hurting. 
   When you're being accused of something false, protect your members first and your image second. People will slander you out of jealousy or pure spite. Your members will know the truth and they're the only community you need.
   When people fake documents, screenshots or other things about you, give up. Fighting it makes people hate you more and "evidence" is a word this community doesn't use.
   
   Never, ever join a news network. Most of them spread lies to bolster their numbers and popularity. 85% of "news networks" are tabloids.
    
3. There is No Difference Between "IC" and "OOC"
   
   Those that pretend there is are lying to themselves. People will attack your character and will demand to dig into your personal life for their own gain. Sometimes Macros even do it in order to blackmail you for your members. You are putting your life in the hands of the game. Never give the community any information. Age: Old Enough. Country: One with Land.
    
4. Friends Are Just Future Enemies
   
   Friends of today are enemies of tomorrow. People will attempt to get close to you just to backstab you. Don't bring people into Economic Affairs, don't bring on a 2ic (Second in Command) and don't merge with an alliance. The people you bring into those circles will write their "tell alls" which blow the same smoke with no proof. However the community feeds on it because it's "drama".
    
5. You're On Your Own. Help is Future Debt.
   
   If you ever build your alliance stay detached from the game. Don't involve yourself in politics and don't lean into the drama of the game. Stay strong in your beliefs and don't break your word in any situation. Alliances that have kept to themselves like Antarctic Alliance have beaten top alliances. Their community makes them strong.

Don't join the P&W community. Be your own community.

[RoH - Thou Shall Not Kill]

17 minutes ago, Rageproject said:

I’d like to see the failed attempt at peace that’s been mentioned to necessitate this “war”. 

I downloaded the entire chat. You're more than welcome to request it in an embassy with us.

[RoH - Thou Shall Not Kill]

 

When Black Skies makes a mistake we're forced to pay for it with forced disbanding. We will not disband. This war is simply an attempt at removing a community from the game.
 

We will leave on our own terms.
 

Black Skies recognizes the IQ moves by Atlas Corporation and Magister Mortalis.

[Bank withdraw]

2 hours ago, Nokia Rokia said:

If I give you this debt back will you stop making forum posts?

Bro had members with nearly $1.5B of debt and he's going around offering to pay off others.

 

Wild.

[[Drama] BF's Dirty Laundry]

8 minutes ago, Commo said:

>gets attacked
>leaves and joins alliance attacking
"not a wardodger!"

He actually joined Dark Brotherhood, their protector first. After Dark Brotherhood refused to handle his application he applied to our alliance where we didn't accept him until after the war.

Black Skies specifically does not accept new applications during a war for this very purpose.

 

Kudos though for trying to point out an issue I specifically said we'd skip over.

[[Drama] BF's Dirty Laundry]

2 minutes ago, Rageproject said:

I stopped reading when I saw there was a suggested rebuild to 1680 infra. 

We don't suggest rebuilds to 1680 infra. What an absurd and weird number.

[[Drama] BF's Dirty Laundry]

I apologize to the P&W community that wake up every day just to see some nonsense posted on the forum. Instead of having a discussion or having an IQ above room temp people would rather air out their bull---- in a feeble attempt to make me and Black Skies look bad.

TL;DR
The debt was actively being paid off until TCM allowed a default of $1,473,995,250.
Brotherhood Family violated the treaty terms and instead of looking like a bully Black Skies let it slide.
Brotherhood Family's harassment of members is one of the reasons Black Skies went to full war.

Skipped issues:
Jupiter was not a war-dodger and BroFam abused it's members
TCM's failure to work with Brotherhood Family's FA department
Brotherhood Family's violation of allowing members to leave willingly
Brotherhood Family's death threats/harassment against members and government of Black Skies during and post war

 

Issue One - The Debt

I knew that Jupiter Jones (Empire of Mickey Mouse and hereby referred to as "JJ") couldn't pay off a nearly $1.2B debt on his own. Black Skies would have to chip in everywhere we could in order to make money as a pseudo "Go-Fund Me" for his nation. I started raiding post war and was adding funds to my safekeep and to JJ's debt repayment. I even skipped the rebuild post Federated States of Orbis/Nemesys (FSO/Nem) war and instead added $137m to JJ's repayment. JJ himself declined the rebuild money and instead put it towards his debt.

 

To JJ's credit he paid off a good swathe of his debt by himself all while being a war torn nation paying:
191,000 Food
2,200 Uranium
5,500 Bauxite
10,000 Munitions
11,000 Aluminum

JJ's remaining debt would of been paid off on December 1st. JJ himself through taxes, safekeeping and rejecting rebuilds accumulated $367m in cash. I through food sales and raiding had accumulated an additional $411m in cash. The plan was to pay back Brotherhood Family with our combined funds and the alliance would pay for the rest. JJ would then gradually pay that off over time through either increased taxes or safekeeping.

However on November 17th Palsada decided to leave to The Coal Mines (TCM) taking a few folks with him. Those members had outstanding debts with Black Skies totaling $1,473,995,250. I went and discussed the matter with TCM to which TCM responded with it wasn't their job and he let debts slide.

 

So then that was that. If TCM wouldn't pay off the debts of their members why was Black Skies expected to do it's part especially to Brotherhood Family, a TCM prot. The dripping irony of Black Skies would have to take the high road again, and hurt itself, was absurd. So instead TCM defaulted on $1.47B in debts and in turn Black Skies defaulted on $1.05B in debts. While we're still not even, in the current circumstance that's as good as it's going to get.

 

Issue Two - Violation of the Treaty

Unfortunately Brotherhood Family glossed over a very, very important term.

However Dark Brotherhood was smart and decided to step back and away from the cluster---- that is Brotherhood Family. Once Black Skies was informed they'd be signing TCM and after death threats from PK an amendment was made to the 3 different peace options we gave to Brotherhood Family:

 

However in true fashion, no channel was set up by TCM to discuss PK's abuse and harassment. No discussion was had for Brotherhood Family and Black Skies to lay out a full schedule for the debt repayments. Post war, like all "reset relations" with Black Skies, Brotherhood Family and TCM flipped us the bird and went on with their days. PK, is still managing FA and still harassing members of Black Skies.

Instead of redeclaring war on something so trivial (and with TCM being no help FA wise) it was decided by Black Skies FA to let the failed treaty slide to give BF the peace of mind that we wouldn't move against them.

 

Issue Three - Breaking the NAP

This is yet another great example of a knee jerk reaction from PK. The NAP was cancelled when it still had 2 months to go. That NAP was not for Black Skies. That NAP was because Brotherhood Family was saved by FSO/Nem and was given a peace out option. Had FSO/Nem not gotten involved the war for Brotherhood Family would of continued for a loooooong time.

I attempted one last message to address the situation:

 

The two month treaty is still awaiting approval.

 

Instead of them opening an FA ticket, or have TCM come in to discuss things Brotherhood Family decided to make a forum post airing out all this bull----. I will applaud BF though for not declaring war on us in their forum post and specifically stating that. They removed the one gift we could of gotten this Christmas.

[TCM Gov/Treaty for 2024.]

My poor eyes

[The Aqua War (winding up/winding down)]

On 11/23/2023 at 12:59 AM, Tomislav Milanovic said:

Alan, it's things like these that get you and your alliance into trouble. Do you not remember last time what happen when you called an alliance a bloated alliance? Does FSO ring the bell?

 

I'm making a statement. TCM isn't bloated imho. If you're calling TCM bloated that's on you. I also never called FSO bloated.

Stop trying to stir up more drama.

[[Treaty]Introducing the Amethyst Accords]

Dwight single handedly reached into the grave and pulled out an alliance.
Mad respect for sticking to it and dealing with all the plebs. +1

Best of luck to both parties. History is doomed to repeat itself. Here's hoping this time the mistakes have already been learned.

[The Aqua War (winding up/winding down)]

14 hours ago, Nokia Rokia said:

"our main issues stemmed from a bunch of C10s and C11s being out of range"

"Our largest member is a C37 that refuses to build tanks"

What basic tactic should I have used? I'm all ears.

 

Shave off the people not doing anything or benefiting your alliance. Don't worry so much about score but worry about bloat.

[[Drama] Black Skies vs Palsada]

TL;DR - Palsada is faking abuse and lied about Black Skies to fit his narrative.

 

Much like Palsada's involvement in Black Skies government this forum post was supposed to be made by him. However I'm not going to wait 4 weeks for him to say he's not going to do it. So once again I'm doing Palsada's task.

Prusso Roman Imperial Union was a protectorate of Black Skies that approached us about a merge due to government burnout and the chance to work together as a Top 30. My experience with the 36 PRIU members has been exceptional with all except 2 members. I won't go into the issues that plagued the work relationship between Palsada and I. Differences of opinions and levels of willingness to assist the alliance are already seen by the membership of Black Skies. What is a serious issue is Palsada turning to the lamest trick in the book to try and hurt our image: Lying.
 

Lie #1 - "PRIU didn't receive any aid/grants from Black Skies post merger"

 

PRIU merged with Black Skies 102 days ago on August 7, 2023. Since then 9 of the 36 PRIU members have taken out grants totaling over  $4.2B. I'm sorry I didn't bother calculating every single PRIU member. PRIU members on the tax brackets set by Black Skies contributed at absolute maximum $39m/day. During the war with FSO/Nem/BF (lasting 23 days) taxes were non-existent. Not to mention drops in former PRIU members deleting or leaving the alliance the total maximum PRIU members contributed to the alliance was  $3,081,000,000. Former PRIU members took more out of Black Skies than they put in. These 9 members alone took an "excess" of $1.1B. You can look at the absolute mess here.

Lie #2 - "Palsada was kicked from the alliance and Discord server"

 

Palsada edited the alliance description, removing himself as Quartermaster (2ic). He then demoted himself to sailor (member). 25 minutes later he left the alliance. Palsada is still in our discord sever with the war medals he earned fighting for the alliance. 

           

 

Half Truth #1 - "Alan leaked screenshots of our DMs"

 

When Palsada left several images were shared of DMs between him and myself discussing matters of government with some members of the current Black Skies government. At the request of an unnamed government member I was asked to show the Black Skies membership 3 of those images highlighting issues with Palsada's leadership ability and willingness. This was used as a multi tool, not only for informing former PRIU folks of the whole story but also to detect anyone who might be leaking items to the now departed Palsada. We have addressed these issues and are looking ahead to the future.

These 3 images will not be shared as then that would really be leaking DMs.
 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

We in Black Skies are dismayed that members have a loyalty to a single person rather than the community. We wish the members that have left the best of luck and hope that they honor their agreements. While we acknowledge that Palsada can do as he wishes, the alliance hopes that he and his followers at the bare minimum repay their debts. We hope that Palsada accepts the reality of the situation rather than continue to fabricate lies to try and fit his narrative.

[The Aqua War (winding up/winding down)]

4 minutes ago, Nokia Rokia said:

you may need to get your reading glasses checked as they are leaving aqua you goofball.

And it only cost you $15B....

[The Aqua War (winding up/winding down)]

TCM loses a war twice to the same micro crew. 

Excellent job to Antarctica Alliance. You managed to win the war, claim the Aqua title and still get paid by TCM. 

[RoH - This is Unexpected]

Well...... A war that wasn't started because of us. This is unexpected.

I thought that when we signed House Stark that they'd get involved in a war because of us. It seems the turns have tabled.

Black Skies recognizes that Singularity undoubtedly had to blitz us to keep us from using 100% of our power. Best of luck o/

 

Black Skies after 8 wars in 10 months:

[[Treaty] Direwolves & Battleships]

Winter is coming and storms' a brewin'. Best to weather it with a friend and ally.

 

o/

[My Design Team Concerns]

The design team for most of P&W's life has been active and presenting positive & interesting ideas to the public. More recently however updates and discussions seem to be dying as quickly as the will of the community.

A major concern of mine is there's no "progress reports" or "road maps" to assist the public in looking how the game is developed. Most "indie" games have a channel dedicated to just game updates and patches (and no not "Please Buy More Credits This Month"). Giving people an updates channel or even a monthly recap of things achieved would be way more interesting and show that the game is making continuous progress.

Another issue is it seems most good/solid ideas get swept under the rug without an indication of "why". More recently tags have been added to show what idea are being "discussed" but there's a clear lack of motion from the design team to point out issues and try to have legitimate discussions about these ideas. The design team seems to have 3-4 members based on activity but I know it's almost double/triple that size.

The past few updates though have been nothing short of favoritism for larger alliances. Spies becoming public information has made it easier for spy kill farming (Looking at Rose) and raising the City Build timer Cap from C10 to C20 is not "for game balance", it's for massive alliances to push billions into their members growth (or another excuse for people to P2W for their cities).

I'm perfectly aware that we don't own P&W. However it's still our game. Updates need to be positive for all levels of gameplay. Updates need to be spoken about and shown to be progressing. We need the design team to have clear and precise objectives to have them follow through to provide the game with the "interest boost" that @Alex is so desperately trying to achieve with mass advertising.

If you have a great alliance recruitment script but a terrible community you will not retain your members. Focus on the game and make sure the departments are running smoothly. Then you can be proud to have new players join.

[Politics and War Alliance Government Survey]

Being an Option 6 in gov would be a fun new experience.

[[DoE] Lets share a cup in Hell - Ghosts Of Sparta]

Looking forward to seeing you grow and watching your potential blossom in an otherwise dead nano world.

[White Peace]

It's unfortunate it took 6 days to get this resolved when Dark Brotherhood had it resolved in 30 minutes.

Looking forward to our future discussions about issues/conflict and best of luck in your rebuild.

[(RoH) The Pen Makes You Saltier Than The Sword]

4 minutes ago, Hes_A_Dictator said:

[(RoH) The Pen Makes You Saltier Than The Sword]

4 minutes ago, Hes_A_Dictator said:

[(RoH) The Pen Makes You Saltier Than The Sword]

 

The Micro-Minute, seeing the salt drip from FSO, has come to liberate them from their troubles. Micro-Minute acknowledges the DoW and recognizes their issues with our reporting style. Come micro! Come fight us! We also vow to come to the aid of Black Skies which FSO accidentally hit in their Micro-Confusion™️.

We see this as a threat to our freedom of speech as a business and separate entity. We fight for the freedom of all reporters to report freely without the needless drivel and threats of nay sayers.

#BanksBad
#FSO_GTFO
#SheepyDidNothingWrong

[[DoW] Operation Moonlight]

35 minutes ago, Kiingcat said:

They don't attack you because of what you post about them, they attack you because of what you say and what you do

 

46 minutes ago, Thompson798 said:

Alan’s insistence on reporting on us in a negative light

Sure.......

The community's failure to read never fails to astonish me.