George Clooney

The wrap up of the SyndiSphere Front of the Darkest Hour Deux War, a war that has exceeded $2 trillion in damages thus far, which is pretty devastating, and it reminded me of another war some 5 years ago, which cost its combatants some $2.5 trillion in damages back when a trillion really meant something. I of course speak of NPOLT, or as I like to call it, The 248 Day War (a call back to another war IRL called "The Hundred Years War"). The 248 Day War was unprecedented in the history of Orbis, and thank God, has never again been rivalled in length. Nor should it ever. For my part, as co-leader with Acadia, I can confidentially say that no one in leadership in any alliance entered the war thinking it would last that long. June became July, which became August, and then September. It just sort of happened. It felt like we were near an end by December, but the complex treaty proposal by one of the coalitions, delays in negotiations by the other (you have to show up to have talks after all), meant December came and went without peace. This not a full recounting of the war. That would take up too much space, and no one would read it. Nor will I address how it ended. Those of us who were around back then have their options on that subject. Instead, I'd like to apologize on behalf on myself, TheNG, and all the other alliance leaders back then to any players who might have quit during the conflict out of frustration with a war that would not end (and if you were in leadership back then and think you nothing to apologize for at all, respectively you're wrong). As I say, it was never anyone's intension from the start to drag things out as long as they went. In our own frustration and bitterness toward each other, I think we forgot that perma war burns people out, even as we were burning out ourselves. Further, I've heard some odd rumors about how Camelot somehow masterminded the whole war, or lead their coalition or whatever. At least someone thinks that is the case, based on a recent conversation I had with Epi. For the record, Camelot five years ago was a relatively minor player in the conflict. NPO, Black Knights, Guardians of the Galaxy, Acadia, and Polaris (or UPN or some others I could name) were either more powerful and/or influential. Anyone who says otherwise should really go look at the alliance stats back in 2019. Anyway, here's to war. Bloodied pixels, infra is transitional, nukes taste like chicken, and chicks did scars. I had fun in this most recent conflict, even as I found myself rather outnumbered. Over $3 billion in inflicted damage, 38 wars, 20 of them offensive, woot! So as you celebrate outright victory or whatever victory you might pull out of a desperate fight in Darkest Hour Deux, let's also remember the past, and not repeat mistakes of an ancient era. Keep it fun.

You are missing the point entirely. No one loves a duckroll. It's lazy, the people getting rolled certainly aren't having fun, and indeed even the people doing the rolling quickly get bored. The political dynamic needs to change. EVH was trying to change it.

I have no knowledge of the KT and won't speak to it. But it felt a lot to WTF like you were baiting Church of Atom, a SAIL member, into coming to our defense. Perhaps you hoped that their entry would at some point constitute a NAP violation, or maybe you wanted them out of the way before the rest of SAIL showed up. As it was, we worked with United Purple Nations, The Coal Mines, United Socialist Nations, and The Lost Empire and resolved to hang on until the entirety of SAIL and their friends could come riding to the rescue. Indeed, we set up a Discord server for coordination purposes and a temporary coalition was formed. CoA's early entry was never going to happen, though we did talk frequently. You weren't "pawned off" on us. Once SAIL and friends countered you, we were more than willing to negotiate with you, and it was even suggested to us by Aurora and CoA that we could seek an exit from the war. You never showed to talk. You did manage to get hold of a very early draft of a peace proposal that was supposed to be the starting point of talks before it was finished and parade around with it show to whoever would listen.... But it's all good, since we weren't all that motivated to exit the war at that point. The pressure was off for the most part, and many WTF members were sitting around for lack of targets. We were content to wait until the general peace negotiations started and everyone was ready for the war to be over. When they did finally start, the war ended very (some say too) quickly.

Hit us, expect to get hit back. Spy attacks may or may not get used. I'd create him a 10 page article with pictures, graphs, and citations from refereed journals, but he knows what his alliance did. We're done here.

I thought it was Gaylord.

Let's see how this works out.

I'm only restating essentially what you said. That alliances that engaging in frequent covert ops are terrible. That covers some pretty significant alliances who were also part of the NAP. Now stop chirping. The Samurai alliance is well known to us, conducting raids against WTF members throughout the NAP, and that is the actual reason for many of the spy attacks.

Nah, he's looking for...

So you are calling the likes of Rose and Oblivion, each of which have leaders near or at the top of the spy kills rankings, a fair measure of spying and espionage, cowardly. I hope that works out for you. No, I know who are the real cowards are.

Get help, man.

Hilarious coming from a member of an alliance such as yours.

Safety in numbers I guess?

Too bad World Task Force wasn't actually an ally of The Syndicate or any of the other named alliances. But we'll certainly recognize the duck roll, thanks.

You could have simply said "duck roll" and the tl;dr part. At least it would have been accurate, and not derivative. But whatever gets you off on a Saturday night, man.

I expected to be at war, but this isn't the war I expected. Interesting.

Unfortunate. It was a pleasure riding along side you.

Thanks for all your efforts. The game is better for them.

Fascinating....

It's neither. Ups and downs in the price of things is also not just a natural part of the game, it's realistic. But don't worry. At some point in the not too distance future, we'll have a nice, big global war that will last too long owing to people needlessly dragging out negotiations.

So you claim to have learned: 1. Never Help People Yet in my journeys through Orbis I have encountered incredibly generous people and people who pay things forward in a way that gives me faith in humanity. 2. Accept Your Faults, Even When You Have None I have a temper. I can be harsh to people who don't take the game seriously enough to even try. No one is perfect. That you think you may not believe you have faults is a fault. In the course of this game are there times you are forced to eat a sh*t sandwich and accept defeat? Absolutely. You dust yourself off, get up, and press on, learning the lessons you need to learn. 3. There is No Difference Between "IC" and "OOC" Perhaps try not oversharing in the first place? No one can talk behind your back about what they don't know. If you made the mistake of trusting the wrong people, then they're jerks for breaking your trust. Make sure that other people know they are gossips and not to be trusted. 4. Friends Are Just Future Enemies And enemies are future friends. This is a game. Alliances and loyalties change over time. I'm now part of the leadership team of an alliance that surrendered to a coalition three years ago that included an alliance where I was part of the leadership team. 5. You're On Your Own. Help is Future Debt. My previous advice on these forums still applies when it comes to the exchange of money, resources, or favors. Get clarity on the terms before agreeing to a deal. Also, get documentation. You can't buy 10 Coal in this game without there being a receipt. You made a business deal and didn't get precise terms on a billion dollar loan (and made sure it was a loan and not a grant)? You're not very bright. Also, don't expect others to help you as though they have an absolute obligation. They should *want* to help you, but if they have solid reasons for not doing so, accept that and move on. Seems like you learned nothing from the game except how to become bitter. Go outside. Get some fresh air and some perspective.

Nice grouping.

If this is the Hot Tub Time Machine, I'm pretty sure I'm in UPN at this point trying to be a good soldier. Fun times.

Sounds more like Miami...or Los Angeles. Wherever the complete tools hang out. You'd know.

Yeah dude, do you even lift? 😂 Where do they get these jock rejects?