Valkorion Baratheon

Alex should just continue to make it easier for folks to access API data, and possibly add more data to the API. Then, a person with half a brain and some effort can go about doing the math and analyses required to predict and model things they don't have direct access to. That's what you'd be doing in real life too; you would be collecting data with your research team, and then buildings models to help you analyze and summarize your findings. In real life, there isn't a magic button that a national intelligence agency presses to obtain information. You want to actually spy on alliances and gain their internal intelligence? Then get better at FA and have their gov spill the beans to you. Or plant your own spy within an enemy alliance and have them rise up the ranks and gain access to information. The only button that maybe makes sense is the ability to "hack" financial databases of enemy alliances in a way that real life nations may hack each other or something. But, this is not a fair mechanic for a game, in my opinion. This alliance spy op that you proposed is basically what dumb or lazy people need. The game is better when people do things that are more intelligent. I understand that the intention behind this idea may be to make things more accessible for more people; however, at the end of the day, this is a game about politics and war. Political intrigue and war plotting, economic analysis and planning, these things are more complex than the average player would ever be able to do on their own. But that is exactly what makes them the more interesting parts of this game. The more buttons we start adding that reduce the need for a brain, the more boring the game is going to get. You need to add buttons that increase strategic complexity, not reduce them. At the end of the day, P&W is really more of a sandbox-type game, and your experience in it is up to how well you can climb ladders within organizations, create organizations, influence people, create tools, create processes, etc. The people who actually have skills or the desire to learn plus a natural aptitude are more likely to experience and play the game to its fullest extent. The rest of the players that don't have the time, natural ability, skills, and/or desire to learn are likely here simply for the community or because they have been playing for a while and it's a way to distract themselves. I don't think you should be able to do all the fancy "S-Tier" things that an "S-Tier" player can pull off if you are actually "D-Tier." In League of Legends, you can't expect an Iron player to compete with Challenger. Here is my little rant, enjoy

Brawl-y-wood or Brawlywood Hollywood and Bollywood fight (brawl). Perfection.

Just outside the Zakuul orbital system, a large fleet could be found, with the capital ship Luciana being the lead cruiser for the fleet. On its bridge, the crew could be seen normally working in their stations, but in a split second, the central console started blinking yellow, alerting a call waiting to be answered. The bridge's main doors opened, silent except for the sound of the call alert and the ominous footsteps of the man walking through it. This man then stood in front of the console, clicking the button to answer the call, a hologram from High Justice Vexz appeared, beside her Emperor Valkorion & Grand Admiral Harry on her other side. "Grand Admiral Lucianus, it has come to my attention that foreign forces are arming themselves. I'd suggest the move to arm our forces; my fleet will soon return from foreign exploration and reunite with the Zakuul United Fleet." Grand Admiral Lucianus looked over at his four admirals, who moved to their stations in order for the militarization preparations. The alert alarm started to blare throughout the cruiser, the whole ship crew could be seen moving swiftly to prepare for a possible war. The High Justice's fleet was seen coming out of hyperspace to the right; it would move to unite with the Zakuul main fleet beside the Grand Admiral’s fleet. Shortly after, in all the fleet's central consoles, High Justice Vexz’ hologram appeared, ordering them to follow the coordinates given. And in an instant, her fleet went into hyperspace, with the rest following after. They entered a galaxy with thousands of lighting streaks across the planetary skies, projecting into outer space, as if it were a show for the warriors. The High Justice then proceeded to make a few comments for all to hear. "Rose has noted the previous failures of both Grumpy and Guardian to offer a CB for their aggressive actions, they will no doubt acknowledge our right to respond in kind. Dinner is at day change and we’re having it on your lawn.” tl;dr Rose declares war on Hollywood

Church of the Force Having lost a critical engine in the Eternal Empire’s latest campaign, Grand Admiral Lucianus ordered all crewmates of the imperial frigate to brace themselves for a crash landing on a nearby obscure and barren planet…. Hours? Days? The Immortal Emperor could not tell. He gazed at the shipwreck, assessing the damage. It seemed that the frigate was out of fuel and weapons were destroyed. Thanks to the expert piloting of Lucianus, however, the body of the ship was relatively intact, needing only minor repairs. Luckily, this planet seemed to have a lot of wreckage from which to scavenge for spare parts. Suddenly, a thought struck the Immortal Emperor. Many of the wrecked ships nearby had very precise and geometric pieces of metal missing. Scavengers! Contrary to what intelligence had suggested, this planet must be occupied! But by who? Friends or foes? There were not enough supplies to survive a prolonged repair on this planet. The Emperor had to act quickly, and so he ordered a small strike team to be formed, headed by High Justice Vexz. She was to lead this strike team in order to quickly explore the planet and make diplomatic contact with the scavengers, potentially acquiring the aid needed to leave this planet and return to Zakuul. After a few hours, the High Justice could not believe her eyes. Within the barren wilderness of this planet, she stumbled upon a great city. But she did not have much time to admire it. Within minutes, her strike team was shot at by patrolling city guards. They were engaged under heavy fire for several minutes before Vexz spotted the enemy commander. Calling upon the Force, she reached out to the commander and called for a ceasefire and an audience with their leader. And so, the commander, Primus Inter Pares Keza, called off his troops and led Vexz, alone, to the city’s Pontifex. As she was escorted through the city, Vexz noticed several civilians praising the power of “Atom” in what seemed like some religious activity, headed by Cardinal of Internal Affairs Randy. Interestingly, she observed that the power of the city and the weapons of Keza’s squad operated similarly to those of the Eternal Empire, yet they seemed fundamentally different in their source of power…. Soon, she was ushered into a grand temple complex, and there she met the Pontifex Atomicus James II, Cardinal of Foreign Affairs Deebo, and the wise and old Cardinal John Baraboo. With the Immortal Emperor attending via hologram, the Pontifex Atomicus described the history of Atom. This planet had once been inhabited by many and considered a great civilization, rivaling the Eternal Empire in its culture and advancements. But centuries ago, the envious twin brother of the Atomic King unleashed the power of Atom in what was supposed to be a civil war of succession. However, John Baraboo said that the brother was not blessed by Atom, and the entire planet was devastated in a mere instant, leaving only a select few true worshippers, the creators of this mighty city and ancestors of its current residents. Intrigued by both the destructive and creative powers of Atom, the Immortal Emperor told the Pontifex Atomicus, head of the Church of Atom and the only being capable of bestowing Atom’s blessing upon others, about the great power and mysteries of the Force. This seemed to interest the Pontifex Atomicus greatly. And so, the two leaders realized the advantages of a mutual agreement. With resources provided by Cardinal of Finance Soxirella, Master of Engineering Exalts outfitted the shipwrecked frigate with engines and massively destructive weapons capable of utilizing Atom’s blessing. As they witnessed the newly fitted ship take off with the guidance of Atom, Deebo made a public address to the Worshippers of Atom regarding their new friends. It seems the Eternal Empire has gained a great ally…. Preamble Rose and the Church of Atom agree to sign an MDoAP treaty. Article I - Sovereignty Both parties agree to respect each other’s right to conduct its own affairs without external hindrance. Article II - Intelligence Both parties agree to share intelligence, with the understanding that close cooperation is necessary for the security of both alliances. Article III - Mutual Defense Both parties agree to come to each other’s aid in the case of an attack by an external aggressor. Article IV - Optional Aggression Should one party decide to pursue aggression against an external party, the other party may join in on the aggression. Article V - Cancellation Should either party wish to nullify this treaty, they must give a 72-hour notice before it is made official. Signed for Rose: Emperor: Valkorion Baratheon High Justice: Vexz Signed for Church of Atom: Pontifex Atomicus: James II Primus Inter Pares & Cardinal of Protection: Keza Cardinal of Foreign Affairs: Deebo Cardinal of Internal Affairs: Randy Cardinal of Finance: Soxirella Cardinal: John Baraboo Tl;dr Rose and Church of Atom have signed an MDoAP treaty

Not feeling super creative at the moment. Anyway.... The Knights Templar and the forces of Rose, Advanced Syndicalist Mechanics, Atlas Technologies, World Task Force, and Respublica Romana have agreed to a White Peace. All wars will end with beige or expiry. There will be no new declarations. Signatures n stuff: Rose - Valkorion Baratheon, Vexz Advanced Syndicalist Mechanics - Comrade Joe, Wunnadem Atlas Technologies - Jordan World Task Force - Globoid Republica Romana - Dreadnought Knights Templar - Horsecock, Denison

Hold up...... why is your alliance color brown?

I denounce this forum post 😝 But yeah, in honesty, I only want war and trade notifications. Everything else is clutter for me, personally.

Rose Spooktober Festivities BOO! Did I scare you? Well that’s good because it’s SPOOKY season! Unfortunately, the season has gone from spooky to a bit boring thanks to the pandemic. Socially distant Halloween parties? Cancelled Oktoberfest? Sucks, doesn’t it? Well, fear not (actually, maybe you should), Rose has got your back! We are excited to announce our Virtual Spooktober and Oktoberfest celebration, dubbed Spooktoberfest! Starting on Friday, October 23rd, we will be hosting a series of fun Spooktoberfest events from the Rose discord server. All people, regardless of alliance affiliation, are welcome and encouraged to join in on the festivities! There will be a lot of fun ranging from games, karaoke, and more! Join and stay tuned to the Rose Discord Server for updates! Here are the Lists of Events (Note: There may be more events listed exclusively on the Rose Discord Server) …… Oktoberfest List of Events Are you salty that COVID-19 shut down your plans to get batshit drunk in Munich this Oktober? Well in that case, come and join us for some virtual Oktoberfestivities! The events to watch out for are the Drinking Games and Karaoke! Drinking Games Date: Friday, October 23rd Time: 9:00pm UTC (3 hours before Day Change) Pour yourself your favorite Bavarian lager (or any other drink) and come join us for a night of drunken festivities! We will be hosting some drinking games for the adults in the room. First up: Monster Mash. By now everyone knows how to count and do basic math (I hope), but not everyone knows how to do them with a few shots in your system. In this game, players count out loud as they go around, except they must say “monsters” on numbers divisible by 3, and “mash” on numbers divisible by 5. Ex: “one…two…monster…four…mash…monster…seven…” If you make a mistake, you have to take a shot! We will also be playing Name That Bone. We will stream the image of a skeleton. One by one, each player will be asked to name a specific bone on the skeleton. Reference material is allowed, but you will be timed in your response. Every time a player gets a name wrong, they take a shot! If time permits or there is popular demand, we may even watch a horror movie and take shots if we can accurately predict what will happen next as we are watching the movie! Full disclosure: This event involves alcohol! Any person under the legal drinking age of their respective countries are not permitted to consume alcohol of any kind. Minors are welcome to join with non-alcoholic options if desired, or simply watch as those who can legally drink fall into a stupor! Karaoke Date: Friday, October 23rd Time: After Drinking Games Good, now that we’ve gotten you batshit drunk, it’s time to exploit that by prodding you into some embarrassing karaoke! Don’t feel shy, however. You won’t even remember this ever happened! For those of you young enough to be sober, if you thought a drunk person was funny, imagine a person singing spooky Bavarian tunes while under the influence! Disclaimer: Being drunk is not a requirement to sing. Anyone can join in! Come join us on and show us your talent (or lack thereof)! Spooktober List of Events Want to get spooked in a socially distant manner? See below! Spooktober Movie Night(s) Date (first movie): Sunday, October 25th Time: 9:00pm UTC (3 hours before Day Change) Movie: TBD Our first spooooky event will be a group viewing of a horror movie. Stay tuned to the Rose discord server to see the listing of movies! Scary Stories with Windego Date: Thursday, October 29th - 30th (Early Morning UTC, but night-time for U.S. Time: 12:30am UTC (30 minutes after day change) Come join us around the campfire and prepare to be spooked! We are excited to announce that our mysterious friend Windego has agreed to tell us some of the spookiest stories we have ever experienced! Famous for his frightening tales over in the Pika Party server, Windego has a large arsenal of frightening tales that he has acquired throughout his childhood and beyond. He will be featuring up to 5 longer stories, as well as some shorter stories/poems to fill out the night. You may laugh. You may cry. But one thing is for certain: you will be spooked. Join us on Voice Chat to experience what Windego has to offer! Minecraft Hunger Games Date of Event: Friday, October 30th Time: TBD (Fill out the form to select times) Sign-Up Deadline: Wednesday, October 28th @ 11:59PM UTC (1 min before Day Change) Sign-Up Link: Click Here Cash Prize for Victor: $100,000,000 Betting on Tribute(s) for P&W Cash: Yes, (Tributes can bet Pre-Game as well) Fire is catching here at Rose and if we burn, you burn with us! One of the most anticipated events of Spooktober, we will be hosting a Hunger Games event on Minecraft and just like in the popular books/movies, there will be several tributes split into different “Districts” that will be chosen via a “Reaping”. The aim of the game: kill or be killed. The game will have a set time and tributes must remain online during that time to participate. The tributes will have access to a cornucopia of supplies from minor weapons to diamond armor, all meant to help them become the last person standing. You do not need to be a tribute to participate. There is great fun in watching the tributes fight to the death! Spectators and even tributes will be able to place bets (in the form of P&W cash) on the tributes they believe will win. Upon conclusion of the event, those that betted correctly will split the pot of cash proportionately. With this title comes a P&W cash prize and the prestigious and irrevocable title of Victor of the Rose Hunger Games 2020. May the odds be ever in your favor. Here is a little snippet of what the arena looks like (although it looks way better in-game and my computer graphics are not the best): We'll try to showcase some better images with gameplay on discord!

We use UB3R-B0T for our feeds in Rose. It doesn't ping you even if @everyone is in the name of the post. Here is the link, friends: https://admin.ub3r-b0t.com/ Save yourselves from the ping.

Wait a second...... Doesn't that mean the chocolate melted? RIP Congratulations on the treaty though; hopefully you can find a fridge or a cooler or something....

Preface While a lot of us might log into P&W multiple times a day, overall player-retention in P&W is not very high. In fact, I would guesstimate that 90% of new players don't make it past the first month. I think a lot of this is due to the nature of browser games in general, not just P&W. You need specific qualities to be able to spend enough time on a text-based game for it to be engaging, in my opinion. Nevertheless, this suggestion is another step (in addition to my tutorial idea in another post and maybe future ideas) that I think could help slightly in raising P&W's player-retention. Main Issue Currently, city/project timers last 120 turns, or 10 whole days. When I first joined P&W years ago, this seemed like a slightly odd number to me. As a new player, seeing double-digit-day-long timers is a bit discouraging. New players want to start playing as fast as possible. Now, P&W is a long-term game, but I think shortening timers could have somewhat of a psychological effect in helping with player-retention. Proposed Solution What if we reduce city/project timers to just 84 turns, or 7 days/1 week? Having to wait 10 days (double digits) might seem like a lot to people. Whereas one week simply seems like more of a normal thing and even though it is only 3 days less, might be more acceptable. In real life, people are used to waiting for things on a weekly basis. School/work deadlines, meetings, etc. It's far more natural to use a week-long cycle instead of a 10-day cycle. In addition, the average city count in P&W keeps going up with time. Thus, being able to build cities a bit faster would probably help new players get better integrated with the majority of the active playerbase, especially when global wars break out. Testing the Solution Let's disregard the build-up from 1 to 10 cities as this has no timers. To get from 10 to 15 cities currently takes 50 days in city timers alone. If you have 1500 infra per city at 15 cities, then you also have 5 project slots, which means an additional 50 days. That's a total of 100 days just to get to a decent nation size that allows you to be competitive in a global war. With week-long timers instead, that would take 7 days x 10 (5 cities and 5 projects) = 70 days. So, you save a whole month in timers alone. However, timers are not the only thing that matter here. Of course, even if you reduce city timers, city costs are exponentially more expensive with each additional city. So, it will probably take you more than 7 or 10 days to save up to get your next city. Disregarding any sort of alliance growth aid, smarter players that flip on the market and/or raid actually could earn enough money that they are able to build their cities every 7 or 10 days for the earlier cities. So, I think it could be good to shorten these timers so that new players can get these earlier cities faster. Because of the exponential cost of cities, it's going to take a lot more time to get the later city counts, so once new players get a bit closer to the average point, they will start to slow down and match the growth rate of older players, so that way, it isn't unfair or anything. Furthermore, I think this could help new alliances in general. In my previous example, I disregarded alliance funding. However, it's obvious that most players who have 10 cities are in an alliance. Thus, they are probably subject to alliance growth initiatives. By reducing city timers, this could help newer, but well-planned alliances become relevant faster. If these newer alliances are doing their econ properly, they can utilize shorter timers to save a month in the catch-up game. I think it's good for game health that rising alliances are able to get into a proper war range a bit sooner. It could help make global politics and wars more interesting and dynamic. Conclusion New players are a bit impatient and want to be able to play as fast as possible. While the retention rate will never be high for P&W due to the nature of browser games and nation sims, reducing city/project timers could help, in my opinion. Furthermore, it could help new alliances with potential become relevant faster and shake things up and keep the game more entertaining.

Preface Before I dive into this, I just want to mention that this post is really a rough draft. I won't be mentioning too much about the specifics of the content of the tutorial. Instead, this is a redesign of the implementation of a tutorial. If this idea is popular, I may start adding specific tutorial content into it with a future post. Main Issue When new players join P&W, they often tend to leave the game within the first month as there is a lack of guidance and purpose for them in the game. It can be overwhelming and players may feel lost. The current Tutorial and Objectives are inadequate in dealing with this. Thus, the purpose of this post is to create a new Tutorial system that will hopefully increase new player retention and competence in P&W (basic concepts and lingo). The best tutorials are those that integrate gameplay. Therefore, the tutorial system that I am aiming for is supposed to provide a sense of purpose through meaningful objectives for new players in P&W. However, the tutorial is not designed to teach you every single thing about more advanced gameplay. This is not a replacement for a proper Internal Affairs department in an established alliance. Outline Create an alliance solely for new players - The Orbis Defense Initiative (ODI) Create a category in the official P&W server for ODI so they can communicate Create an alliance solely made of bots - The Sibro Invasion Force (SIF) Sibro is just the reverse of Orbis 30-day tutorial that teaches ODI (new players) the basics of how to build their nation, use the market, and fight their "mortal enemies" in SIF. Note: These are just random names for referencing purposes. Details When you join this game, you get assaulted by player-created recruitment messages without knowing anything about the game. Many new players choose not to join any alliances because of this "spam." However, these same players soon lose interest as there is not much for them to do, or so they believe since they have no guidance. Furthermore, in-game communication isn't really enough to keep you hooked on the community, and that is a large part of the appeal to the game. My idea is to provide guidance via an alliance for new players only. All new nations will automatically spawn in The Orbis Defense Initiative. As the first part of the tutorial, they will be strongly encouraged, albeit not required, to join the P&W discord server where they can communicate with other players and ODI members. This way, they can get connected to the main P&W community sooner and be less likely to feel lost in the game. This is very important so that these new players can immediately interact with real people. This will increase the likelihood of someone staying in the game. Next, there should be a rival alliance to The Orbis Defense Initiative. I think this alliance should be an alliance made out of bots - The Sibro Invasion Force. The Sibro Invasion Force will have lore as the enemy of Orbis. They are a collective of nations that banded together to invade P&W’s planet of Orbis from their home world of Sibro. The Orbis Defense Initiative (new players) are a coalition of nations that have been tasked with the duty of defending the world of Orbis from this extraterrestrial threat. Why create the SIF? The idea here is to create a sense of purpose. We want our new players to have a reason to build military units and make sure they have enough income to support them. Before, the Objectives simply gave you a cash reward for buying soldiers. But, if you are a new player, there is nothing exciting about that. We need to create excitement. People play games to have fun. You want to teach new players how to play as well as keep them engaged. Throughout the tutorial, ODI members will gain cash rewards for completing their objectives. These objectives will be a combination of nation-building, trade, and war that will give new players a well-rounded P&W experience and tutorial. The final payout will be after they have defeated x number of SIF nations in combat. They should be able to reach 10 cities and 1500 infra and land per city, maybe even a few key projects as well. The entire tutorial will last 30 days. Throughout the 30-day ODI experience, players will receive notifications in-game telling them to complete objectives in preparation for their war assignment against SIF. The tutorial will show them the basics on how to build their nations. It should be easy to go back and access old parts of the tutorial, should a player (both old or new) need to. Eventually, at the 15-20 day mark, there should start to be war assignments against the bots in SIF. From there, the tutorial will teach new players the war system and they will learn by defeating SIF nations (which, again, are bots and so they are guaranteed to win). Neither ODI or SIF should show up on the Treaty Web or Alliance Rankings. Nations in ODI should be protected from other players. They can only go to war with SIF. New players should be given the choice to leave ODI, but if they do, they forfeit re-entry into ODI. After 30 days of existence, nations will automatically be kicked out of ODI and encouraged to join a real alliance or do whatever else they wish to do. Alternate Modification ODI might not have to be an alliance. It could just be the theme of the Tutorial. New players can still join any alliance or no alliance while being part of ODI and its initiative against SIF. So, if I were a new nation, I will have ODI Tutorial notifications. I can still join an alliance and be part of an alliance's community while learning the basics of the game. In this case, maybe new player beige should last 30 days. So, you will still have the protection from other players that the ODI alliance was supposed to give. You can fight SIF while in beige, but once you leave new player beige, you will be vulnerable to player wars as usual. Something like that. Only tutorial players should be able to attack SIF, essentially. Thanks @Lucianus for this modification suggestion.

Similar to what I said in this post here, Is this supposed to go hand-in-hand with the other changes? Combining beige bank with reserve units, for example, makes defense so immensely powerful. Whenever defense is too powerful, like what @Shiho Nishizumi mentioned earlier, it crushes the incentive to start a war. Aggressors are taking on way too much risk if defense is too strong as there is a political cost to being the aggressor. We already have a 6 month NAP in place. Knightfall technically didn't even end with an NAP, but still had a long period of peace following it (could be wrong here, don't quite remember). Alliances need to stockpile resources to fund their war efforts. It's why wars don't last 2 weeks anymore like they did when this game first started out. Now, when tanks were buffed recently and planes nerfed, alliances then had to make sure to stockpile more steel. The combination of steel costs, political costs of aggression, buffing of defense (and therefore weakening of aggression), stockpiling behavior, and rampant changes (whoever wants to start the next war is going to have to consider being the guinea pig for this plethora of untested changes) is just going to stifle aggressors from starting wars. And again, like what Shiho said earlier, that'll just lead to a more stagnant and boring game. I'm not saying there should be zero changes to the war system. You may indeed want to help people get out of perma-pinning situations. But it's unclear what the effect of all these various suggestions are going to be when combined. For example, it's been implied that two of the previous suggestions are already going to happen, yet we haven't even been able to test them yet, let alone see them on the live server and judge them before moving onto another suggestion. I know the player base tends to beat up Alex about a lack of updates, but maybe we should slow back down a little bit, lol.

Is the proposed beige mechanic in this thread supposed to go hand-in-hand with the updates suggested in this other thread? @Prefontaine Right now, it's super unclear what is the preferred plan of action. This current thread talks about replacing the old beige system with a new beige system. The thread I linked talks about replacing the old beige system with a new reserve mechanic, spy op changes, and blockade nerfing. Both threads imply or outright claim that Alex is going to go ahead with these ideas and wants last minute community thoughts. It's hard to properly comment on these proposed changes lately when so many are being presented so quickly and we don't know how they are all supposed to tie together (if it is intended for them to be tied together).

Carthago delenda est!