Raphael

What can you say that the secret Clock leader hasn't already covered here ^

Being allied to Rose as a Partisan AA is a CB

Gaze upon our precedent-setting. Moving away from bloc politics and back to AA's! Also waaaaaaar! Good luck, have fun everybody.

Happy birthday!

After literally forever, Wizel has chosen his next Prince! Congratulations to Canbec on his coup de'tat most recent promotion! We also had a touch of shuffling and some old/new faces back in high gov, the line up is now as follows: King: Wizel Prince: Canbec Herald of War: WarriorSoul Herald of Growth: Lancelot Herald of IA: Modi Herald of Fabrials: Kyu Ghostblood Babsk: Morf May his reign be long, full of wars, interesting FA, and gross economic mismanagement. Huzzah for new blood! Also FA gov: Roberts

A lot of bluffing and huffing in this thread but unfortunately it has to be done. On behalf of TKR we accept Church of Atom's terms and formally surrender with the following: 1. Morf will be removed from government 2. Who Me will decom all his nukes Thanks for the good fight, we just couldn't overcome the odds.

I tried to be objective AND give reasons: Prefontaine - Like or hate him, he was a formative Guardian government member, leader of the original TEst, helped truly pave the path of paperlessness and all the "decentralizing" philosophies that sprouted from those discussions like our current system of spheres, played the villain in a time where the villain definitely wasn't the safe play, has had a loud voice on the development of the game, and ultimately is now running point on game development decisions as Alex's effective right hand. His political influence has waxed and waned but his impact on PnW has echoed the entire time I've been here. Partisan - The number one political player in the game, IC the most influential across the longest time frame. Others have sometimes bested his coalitions, others have sometimes overridden his opinions, but no other players has so consistently been able to bend the metagame to their will as Partisan has. Personally, I think a lot of hype has helped him achieve his goals but I can't discredit his results. Overhyped or not, people are willing to follow along with him and he has proven able+willing to make decisions and proactive shape the game. He has been a driving force in a driving alliance since I joined the game years ago and continue to wield influence. Roquentin - I'd argue only Roquentin qualifies as a "GOAT" even if he lives in infamy. His methodical grip on NPO and NPO's antagonistic FA approach for the duration of their time here really set the stage for a ton of IC politics. Ultimately ending in NPO's last time which directly resulted in a complete up-ending of the political status quo. I don't think it can be understated the importance of moving away from a treaty web and into a multi-polar world, people have been pushing for such a thing since Cybernations began in 2006. Roquentin, via NPOLT, also pushed a ton of the old generation into full retirement and made room for a whole new generation of players to really step up and make their own decisions, for better or worse. I'd argue he had a huge negative impact on the game, but he still was objectively one of the most influential players to play. The fourth pick is pretty hard. There are a lot of names which I'd classify as contenders but no clear fourth person I'd say DEFINITELY stands out. I'll lay out my contenders: Adrienne - TKR's leader during Knightfall and a cornerstone of the community. She helps run a ton of community events in retirement and is still a huge driving force within TKR years after stepping down. During her time as leader TKR grew to such power that a coalition of alliances teamed up to take them down. Generally speaking I think she's a behind-the-scenes operator for the past couple of years and therefore not an obvious standout for a most influential or GOAT player. Even though she is great. Abbas - Arguably Partisan's rival in politics, especially in the early days of PnW. However I'd say he failed to really accomplish things on the scale that Partisan did. Rose built larger coalitions than t$ but successively crashed into a bulwark of better-coordinated alliances time and time again. This combined with his more backroom/string-puller style of FA - something I think Rose still struggles to shirk off to this day - as well as the fact he's really fallen out of PnW politics in the last couple of years make me hesitate to name him as a GOAT as well. Abbas's significance almost comes as much from his rivalry with Partisan/t$ as it does from his actual actions. Kurdanak - Another community staple that also had his hands in politics at various times. Kurd has helped run several different community projects over the years and had a wide influence + presence in much of the game. Kastor - Another very involved community player but questionable political influence. Depending on the time period he was either an active leader/high gov member or seen in a less flattering light. For that reason I wouldn't name his as a GOAT either. Kev - another OG long-time community contributor, alliance creator, and really kickstarted radio shows for PnW which I feel are a huge piece of the game's IC community. Thalmor - Speaking of Radio Shows / Community contributors, consistency is key. No one has been as consistently high quality as thalmor radio. Honorable mention for sure. I've also known Thalmor for literal years and he's always been a presence within the community as a whole. Infinite Citadel/Dalinar - the founder of TKR, IC was heavily influential in the beginning stages of the game and a heavy influence within TKR. I'm not super familiar but I know he was pretty involved in politics along with Partisan and Abbas. There are a lot of other honorable mentions but those are the "contenders" for spot number four that really come to mind.

finally

She may be your father, but she ain't your daddy

oh good this isn't for the raid DM I forgot to reply to

No thanks. I'm always open to helping from where I am though. My point, I guess I didn't communicate properly, was that people shouldn't call out micros or new alliances but actually go and help them. Alliances which are years-old and knowingly bad at the game deserve some criticism. These are two separate thoughts and non-contradictory imo.

tbh this post isn't aimed at you. It's disappointing you disagree with the post because of the first sentence, but I've seen you personally intercede in multiple alliances other people would've written off as "incompetent" such as SoL. Granted, SoL burnt your bridge but props to you for trying in the first place. I would say we're on the same side of this issue, you just may not agree with every detail of my analysis.

Bullshit on game balance? what

This is going to sound very counter-intuitive and counter-meta but I promise there's some nuance here so bear with me. A current problematic trend in the community, especially the FA community, I've noticed is a hyper-fixation on competence. I can't believe I'm on "this" side of the argument, as usually I'm a very gitter-gudder type person, however I think as with many good things we have taken it a little too far and gotten a little too elitist with it. It's not even the focus on competence that is the issue, it's the attitude of superiority or "skillfulness" that some people have taken to the extreme. Politics and War is a trash game with no skill involved, if you read the worst war guide in the game you're probably a master of the war system. If you read one econ guide, you can probably get your nation setup correct on the first try. It's not hard, skillful, or even impressive that you're playing the game correctly; it just means you know how to read. Instead of helping people "git gud", we utilize news servers to constantly mock and deride people to the point where they don't even want to interact with the community. Including people who genuinely want to help. We, as a community, are incredibly toxic to new or perceived-bad players. It's now a "rare" thing for even an individual player, let alone a coordinated group, to reach out and even attempt to help people. We should, both as alliances and as players, be reaching out at least to offer help to groups who are lagging behind. It leads to a more interesting game across the board. I've made other posts about how important protectorates are and why we should utilize them to the fullest (not simply drop a treaty and occasionally fend off a raider, but actually work with and train groups so they are at least aware of the meta.) On the complete flip side of this argument, if you're in an alliance that is willfully ignorant of the meta, "community focused instead of militarily focused", or otherwise getting repeatedly clapped in wars but refusing to read a guide or ask for help.... You're the other half of the problem and I promise you this community won't leave you alone to suck-in-peace. PnW is built on punishing bad players and bad communities - your best defense against getting rolled every 2-3 months (looking you WTF, Fark, Polaris, UPN, TFP, etc) is to achieve baseline competence and then you need to actually suck it up and start doing the very minuscule things you need to do. Members won't comply? Boot em, send them to another AA that you're not treatied to so they can get rolled by themselves. just my two cents. tl;dr - stop being mean to people and help them git gud, or if you're being bullied then git gud yourself.

That is the point. It was never intended as a mechanic to be "worth" playing. That is the exact problem with baseball right now is that it's a for-profit mechanic being exploited.

Game balance.

bro if you like baseball so much would a nerf to the income (which you've already ROI'd like three times over) really hurt you that badly? Just keep playing and have fun, this is a game balance/exploit issue for the wider meta.

honestly I think this turns into a debate simply because there is a choice. People who feel like they get an advantage out of beige cycling will argue to keep it. People who aren't enjoying being cycled will argue to gut it or cut it. If this wasn't a choice (all wars ending in beige) this wouldn't even be a debate. So make all wars end in beige, and let the players develop a new meta around that. Keep it simple imo.

I also appreciate this.

serious answer: Continue to push forums as a primary method of communication. Bring people back to long-form discussion boards where politics can take a more serious tone. Renew radio shows - we've hit a bit of a slump lately Sphere shakeup/Fluidity - Alliances need to be able to move freely between spheres a little bit more than they are. Right now it's a race/push to get into the "Good" blocs and the "not good" blocs kinda just sit there. There's more than just A or B, you could seek out other like-minded AA's and form a new bloc for example. Sphere Decentralization - FA is increasingly being handled by one or two figures within spheres, or centralized into a "council" of leadership within the sphere. Freedom, sovereignty, etc. is all still very central to the health of politics in this game and we need to start taking steps away from this pattern.

Serious-posting on the OWF? Could you imagine

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tbh this whole thing was just bait. the thought process was everyone would get angry enough to hit someone. But who? GG is too tiered. TKR is too tenacious. T$ is too whiny. The clear answer is Rose. We (T$, Grumpy, and TKR) conspired to get the whole world mad enough to form some kind of super-TJest-type AA and go rogue on Rose. Celestial? A farce, an illusion to set this whole thing up. t$ is coming for Rose, with the ultimate goal being forced disbandment. Once Rose is engaged with the rest of the world, we unveil the real plan and hit them from behind. 1m score going down to 100k. 9 months of war minimum. #RoseFall2022

I personally haven't seen any negativity