Alastor

Does the current sphere meta help to solve or worsen political stagnation

I think I'm going crazy when I say this but maybe Partisan was right. A little background, before NPOLT (about 4-5 years ago!), this game was mostly divided into 2-3 major spheres of influence. This is not to say these spheres were uniform in nature, it was a chaotic affair trying to organize dozens of alliances in one direction and typically it wasn't governed as spheres are now with a centralized leadership. You had competing interests in each sphere, just as the spheres competed with each other. The idea of many different spheres was novel, it was even viewed by many as a fantasy. "Minispheres" as it used to be called. The idea had iterations upon iterations until it finally came into its current form: We now have a handful of medium-sized spheres, some bigger or smaller, and generally speaking they all revolve around a central figurehead alliance (or two). Many of us thought that formally dividing the major powers from each other and culturally dividing their interests would lead to dynamic and interesting politics as opposed to the sometimes-repetitive nature of bipolarity. We, as a community, have harshly enforced this new status quo: Teaming up to attack spheres that showed signs of excessive collaboration or "paperless treaties." A lot of casus belli from the last few years have been regarding the size or tiering of various spheres, or whether someone has sat out of too many wars while the other spheres burned each other. In a way, it has created a more dynamic political environment. Something akin to musical chairs. So how was Partisan potentially right? The sphere system seems to lend itself more to the uplifting and amplifying of any given "major power" than to the rest. Even in situations when a sphere or bloc truly are co-equal and make mutual decisions, the political scene is gridlocked unless your "shot caller" is directly involved. This is enforced both by the other sphere leaders, who will sometimes stonewall political discussions unless you're with a major power -- and by the sphere followers, many who will defer to their sphere leader as the only decision maker in the bloc. I'm calling it the vassalization of alliances many of whom are chained to their "master" alliances for years at a time without ever having the chance to start their own machinations or pursue their own agenda, if they have an agenda at all. Vassals, lapdogs, servile alliances have always existed in any meta but the sphere meta seems particularly harsh in ensuring that you must follow the leader, no matter what. There is no option other than to choose another leader to follow. I will also point out that the cultural enforcement of the sphere system has begun to blur over time. Lingering cross-sphere ties are seemingly present everywhere with unwritten rules governing the true state of these ties: Are they going to be honored? Are they going to be enforced? Maybe, is the answer. You'd have to ask and it depends on the day. There is also the issue of new spheres and their inability to form a competitive bloc despite they themselves being a strong central force that might otherwise exert a sphere of influence if the system was not so rigid. This decay of a clean sphere system combined with the rigidity of the politics has caused me lately to question the efficacy of such a political meta. Thought I'd write up a short thing about it. Let me know your thoughts!

We are all acutely aware.

The lie is that House-SAIL-Eclipse were in serious talks about a NAP, and that TKR was leading the charge on this, or that anyone in our bloc even agreed to anything more than listening to someone else's pitch. It wasn't us who pitched the idea, and it died in DM's within a very short conversation. I've brought it up in private with many already, but this just flatly was not a thing that was happening. It wasn't even a backup plan, it was just a pitched thought that never went anywhere after one discussion.

Just save the typing effort and say you can only photosynthesize in the light of my attention

I thought it would be nice of me to compile a list of things you could do between now and August if you are one of the roughly 3000 players affected by the handful of cowardly leaders who doubled an already way-too-long NAP after 24 hours of warfare back in February. In no particular order: Learn a musical instrument Start an exercise routine Coup your leaders Leave your terrible alliance Pick up knitting Give painting a try, Bob Ross is nice to watch Listen to some new, or old, music Read a book or 20 Start shopping for your autumn wardrobe - the NAP will end by the time the weather starts turning in many areas. Give Rise of Kings Online a try, a new nationsim game that doesn't [yet] have years of NAPs being signed Learn some basic Spanish Do some yoga Visit your family Post your ideas for how to spend the 2024 NAP here!

Peace in our time.

I'm not trying to flame you when I say this... but this reads like a post from a new player who just got raided for the first time. It's crazy how we're almost a decade into PnW and people still think the raiding playstyle is "just that easy."

Echoing what others said, I think this would be a neat flavor addition but see very little use. Applying tariffs would just actively harm your own members for likely no benefit. If you expanded the scope of this change a bit further, I believe it could be very impactful. Remove direct control of tariffs, base it on number of trades between any two alliances. Say it starts at a default 0%, ticking up by 0.01% per turn. Each trade reduces it by 0.01%. Only count trades above a certain value to prevent exploit. If this option is chosen, I'd then recommend the tariff money delete from the game instead of going into an alliance bank. Now you have a cool feature and a money sink.

Huzzah! Would it be asking too much to get an official announcement just stating the existence of the channel and its purpose?

I hope it will get people a little more involved in the political discussions, unless you want them all on RON @Dr Rush Was this a serious offer? There is definitely interest in using the PnW main discord for game functions and the like.

We're at 14 btw. You guys are bad at counting.

What I'm actually looking for is for a forum-style channel to be added for both. Please post your signatures below. 1. Roberts

So the NAP covered "All parties" in the war. Samurai is on CTOWNED with quite a few wars. Regardless of whether you claim them, Samurai is indeed breaking the NAP quite clearly. edit: Samurai was apparently #14 in Net for the war. Not a bad showing. 14 Samurai (NET)$3,090,208,310 (Offensives)129 (Defensives)115 (Inflicted)$9,083,203,364 (Received)$5,992,995,054

I can't believe TKR and Grumpy have formed another hegemony