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Cooper_

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Everything posted by Cooper_

  1. To echo on this, I'm long past the point where I've gotten enjoyment from the game or where I have had time to play between school, job applications, irl stuff, etc. I only maintain a nation because it's slightly better to be a 100/100 farm to help the TKR community than to delete my nation altogether. It gives me an excuse to be on slack with all of the friends I've made over the past few years and a way in which I can contribute without having to spend time I don't have on the game. People can say whatever shit they want about my VMing every war since I "left" the game, but I think it speaks to the strength of our community that I preferred to stick around in some barebones capacity than just simply delete and leave. I didn't want to leave my community even if I didn't have the time or desire for PnW. This is also a true for a few of our other nations who are perma-VMed and we keep them on the alliance as a testament to their previous service to our community. If you look through the names, these are folks like smith, deus, and legoboy. People who have truly left their mark on TKR and even on Orbis. By VMing, they get to stay a part of our community and contribute in slack/forums without wasting time they don't have to spare. I'd simply ask for y'all to respect how we as a TKR community have decided to handle these situations. Our community is important to all of us, even to folks like me who are mostly checked out. I hope this also provides context on why the OP was so frustrating for many of us.
  2. Been a minute Leopold. Hope you're well man! Anyways, just to throw in my 2 cents. I think a lot of the want for IC content requires alliances to have goals and being willing to sacrifice political capital to achieve them. The current generation of leaders seemed to agree on a lot tbh, there isn't much meta conflict. Whatever dissent there has been against a successively downsizing sphere meta has slowly been pummeled into submission. You have to be pro-minipsheres/multipolarity (I guess now even "paperless+") in order to be taken seriously at an FA level. And don't get me wrong, this makes me very happy as it was a vision I encouraged during my tenure in TKR FA. That said, the politics of the game seems to have been reduced from an ideological conflict on the meta direction to a set of oscillating grudges and notions of competitive wars based on tiering. The reason why I'm quoting you Leo is because that's something I had admired of T$ in the past. I never liked the forum shenanigans, but the idea that y'all would take a stance and stick with it was a good thing. Upper tier consolidation, for example. I disagreed with a lot of it, and I think you took it way too far. But it drove conflict and eventually became a tenet of the meta. Another thing is the green color warfare. There's a balance to be had between verbally abusing people and a principled ideological battle. So bottom line is that current FA folks need to think about their priorities. Is it solely a strategic game now of friends and enemies where you're just trying to maximize the time you're on top? Or do you have a vision for the future of the game and are willing to put yourself on the line to achieve it?
  3. Do y'all not have lives? You blitzed on a Friday night in Summer...
  4. I really like this idea, and I think it could be really cool if we could get some form of anonymous poll of alliance leaders. This might be more logistically challenging, but would also give us a picture of how the current decision-markers see things going. Cheers
  5. You have to forgive us... we've had supply chain issues.
  6. Comrades, we stand here. We die here. It has been an honor. o7 Red
  7. Can't we just be good with you guys being on the only relatively fair target and the desire to have a war after a while? If I were to put myself in Morf's shoes, it'd be as simple as losing billions in infra and wanting to put it to use instead of collecting losses. We couldn't hit Backroom or Clock because they literally just rebuilt. That leaves Celestial as the only sphere left. There's a lot that's mechanically and strategically interesting about this war even if the politics are extremely straightforward and impersonal. I look forward to seeing how each sphere deals with the cards they've been deal. Good luck folks.
  8. Mount Rushmore had presidents of different eras, so I think it might be fair to list the greatest of each era/generation. The order of names is my personal viewpoint on who was the most influential (not about personal liking or agreement/disagreement of actions) of each era, but it's obviously a bit subjective. Beginning - Silent Era Ranking: Partisan, Prefontaine, Abbas Explanation: I know the least about this era because it was before my time, but I was in FA long enough to hear sufficient stories to have an idea. Syndisphere was dominant for the majority of this era, defeating covenant, paragon, and paracovenant. Partisan was the FA lead and public face of The Syndicate for much of this period, and was able to get strong alliances with TKR and BK. Prefontaine is a wildcard here since he led TEst, but the fame of the original alliances lasts to this day with like the 20th "reincarnation" of TEst being the current one we have today since its legacy is so strong. Until Papers Please, TEst was at the pinnacle of the game and a threat to nearly everyone. Finally, Abbas was a main political rival of Partisan/T$ and their relationship was the basis of at least one of the major conflict axes in this era. His ability to work in the shadows is renowned and still was actively considered in 2021 by the FA folk of Orbis when I was doing FA 5 years later... Silent - KF Era Ranking: Dalinar (Infinite Citadel), Roquentin, Ripper Explanation: Yes, I'm TKR so you might say bias, but it's quite obvious to any outside observer that TKR dominated this era. What was once Syndisphere evolved as Obsidian Order became the center of power. The breakup of BK and TKR to form EMC and IQ might've been the most consequential set of events in the entire game's history, the impacts of this would reverberate until NPOLT. IC had led TKR from the beginning as a small alliance that overtook the likes of T$, Pantheon, UPN, etc. to become #1 and find a strong set of allies. IQ was defeated during Trail of Tiers and the trouble for TKR didn't start until well after IC stepped down. Roquentin is another leader who was able to build his alliance from the ground up. He originally started in Umbrella, and then he moved over to lead NPO. It was a controversial move given the CN history, but NPO's characteristic tiering style was troublesome for any opponent and still sets the standard today for econ departments. While NPO lost Trail of Tiers and Ayslamic Crusade, it's new bloc IQ became the strongest power by the end of this period taking it from TKR during KF. Ripper may seem like an unconventional choice as a leader of arrgh, but his time in CoS/Valinor proved to be quite impactful. KF was a major turning point for the entire game where the Syndi and later EMC coalition that had always won would finally lose. However, the issue was bridging the gap between Syndisphere (T$-Syndi-Pantheon) and IQ, for which CoS and Test played large roles in facilitating as well as charting out the future of the game. The concepts of a dynamic meta and minispheres would be generated here. An honorable mention here is Thrax who played a similar role. KF - NPOLT Era: Roquentin (note I don't think he should get much acclaim but no doubt was the most powerful at this point), Adrienne, Buorhann Explanation: Roquentin's role in NPOLT is plastered all over the forum. I don't think he really deserves recognition for his actions here. Adrienne was the glue of the resistance to IQ. What began as a fractured coalition of minispheres between KETOGG, Chaos (miss you guys <3), and Rose was pushed to the limit as we were held under for 9 months straight. It wasn't a group of friends but people who had a bare level of mutual interests, and Adrienne with deft kept those folks together and our front strong until her resolve paid off with the GPWC scandal. While she had to whether KF early on, it wasn't much of her doing and she showed the world that TKR was not a pushover despite being ganged up 2-3 to 1 repeatedly. A force truly to be reckoned with, and a leader who inspired the loyalty and activity of her entire alliance. Buorhann was also a key player in KETOGG, helping to set up Surf's Up and deal with NPOLT. However, his contributions are mostly ideological. The original KT/ET/TGH sphere was also a long-term goal to launch minispheres as the default meta. Given the direction of the game after KF and especially afterwards, it's no doubt that his ideas are influential. If you were to put a face on the movement, it'd be his. Beyond NPOLT: Valk, Keegoz, Ben, Tyrion Explanation: Coming out of NPOLT, Rose was a shell of its former self. It'd always suffered with competence issues and now it had basically no activity and was on life support after the year-long war. Valk took charge in the middle of NPOLT when Zevfer disappeared, leaving him and Mhearl to deal with the fallout. In less than a year, Rose was contending and then overtook TKR for the #1 spot. It was transformative as Rose's changed up their econ system, invested in tech, and was seen as highly competent (at least until GnR). Rose scored major victories against Quack and later HW, and is now by far the largest alliance in the game without having Alex make everyone join Rose. Keegoz is a bit of a dark horse, but his influence is generally shadowy in the vein of his former colleague, Abbas. That said, HM, briefly HW, and later Clock under CoTL and Cataclysm were continually at the forefront of the game. They've an impressive war record and are generally the standard of competence that other spheres compare to. Keegoz helps put the people and pieces in place to enable those things to happen. While the HM/Quack conflict axis was important, it eventually became overshadowed by a rivalry with Rose, importantly Rose and TKR. Ben had led the recovery of TKR from NPOLT and was crucial for the creation of HW which dominated the politics of 2021 with GnR and the eventual Syndi-Rose coalition (which also likely factored into their current alignment). His TKR had been at the center of the game in Quack and then later on in HW. Tyrion's record is more mixed than the previous 3; however the list wouldn't be right if he wasn't considered. Among the power brokers in this era, Tyrion was certainly always in the room and making changes to Swamp, Oasis, and later joining HW. TI had started from scratch in the vein of Pantheon but has been pleasantly surprising in terms of competence relative to Pantheon (still a work in progress though). For any sphere moves, knowing the thoughts of Tyrion who led the major bloc of lower and mid-tier nations was important. Overall: Partisan, Dalinar (Infinite Citadel), Adrienne, Valk If you only want to include one TKR: Partisan, Roquentin, Adrienne, Valk
  9. Oh man, this made me cry a bit. I'm gonna miss him. It was just refreshing to be around him, and what time we had with him was truly a delight. Eternally sheetz > Wawa, comrade. May you Rest In Peace.
  10. The whole point is that if spheres are noncombatants, then there isn't an issue with them continuing as noncombatants militarized or not. If HW is at war with celestial and BR/Clock want to do the same deal, I'd say go ahead. This doesn't change the meta that noncombatants can gain a bit more economic progress while sitting on the sidelines. I'd say there's two points where this becomes an issue: 1) The same sphere/alliance groupings continually work together that stagnates political relationships 2) The treaty is held after war beyond a doubt of protecting against a demilitarized hit If this were to happen, you might actually have a point. Until then, all of this is just empty rhetoric.
  11. I really hate claims like this. It’s all rhetoric and no substance. There is zero intent to fight a war together just not to be hit while demilitarized. If clock wants to 1 v 1 either sphere because of this, so be it but that doesn’t mean multipolarity is harmed by spheres maintaining their neutrality in a war that doesn’t involve them. Unless there’s some new secret treaty or mega sphere between Celestial or HW, none of this is going to change the meta.
  12. How has minispheres been endangered by uninvolved spheres staying uninvolved in somebody else's war? You can't just throw out non-sequiturs like "hegemony" or "minispheres in danger" just for shits and giggles. There is no great disturbance to the political sphere equilibrium from the decision to take better advantage of peacetime build slots. What I assume is your premise is that HW and Celestial are now a single megasphere and going to fight wars together. If that were the case, I'd be up in arms about it too. It clearly isn't nor was there ever an intention from what I can see to fight together. Do you want us to just demilitarize and let Clock/BR roll us for free? The reason why only Gorge is up here actually saying the quiet part out loud is because I think y'all are aware of how outrageous of a jump it is to go from conditional protection while at a militarization disadvantage to consolidation of spheres. After the war ends, if Clock or BR wants to duke it out with us 1 v 1 without a militarization advantage, I'd say go ahead. I know personally that TKR milcom would do anything for good, hard fight.
  13. And there you have it folks, we've gone full circle to claims of hegemony. The nefarious plan to not lose build slots for a few weeks is going to break minispheres! I apologize if we did someone the disservice of not letting them get a free, unearned win on a demilitarized foe. You come in here yapping about hegemony. Please, what a joke. Spheres interacting with each other, especially former rivals (i.e. "dynamism"), is exactly how it was imaged. Politics was meant to be interesting and new and changing versus the slog of bipolarity. This is interesting and new and changing.
  14. I don't think HW is scared of a clock 1 v 1. Don't get me wrong it would be a hard fight, but if we're militarized I think it'd be a competitive war for both sides. The issue is if Clock (or BR) wanted to take advantage of our demilling to try to get an easy win. This isn't our war, and I don't see why we have to sit here and be fully milled and lose economically while people unrelated to either of our spheres fight it out. If Clock or BR wants to dance, then let's do it but we're not dumb enough to let them do it while we have our pants down (GnR rings bells here as a warning). I'd also point out that the Oasis-Swamp treaty was directly in response to a war they knew was coming to try to consolidate out of their situation. Neither Celestial or HW intends to fight a war together because of this agreement. I think the context–Oasis and Swamp having a historical friendship and being part of the same sphere versus the Rose/TKR and Grumpy/T$ grudges which dominated the game for the past year–also factors into these agreements. Bitter rivals putting enmities aside to secure a political advantage is exactly how we envisioned the minispheres meta to be!
  15. I'm still lost as to how an agreement to safely get to a lower MMR is being held as the same as or even similar to the Swamp-Oasis bloc-wide MDP against a potential threat. Does intent not matter anymore? Or for that matter the impact on the meta here, which is just to incentivize a shorter war among the combatants and not allow an easy dub on a demilitarized foe?
  16. Just going to chime in briefly that I don't think this move is that crazy because it's simply to allow the two spheres to demilitarize instead of militarizing for the remainder of the war. Granted, this does then apply an incentive to the current combatants to keep things short (which I don't really think is a bad thing) or fall behind on tiering/econ progress. Most folks here are acting like HW and Celestial are scared of a confrontation with Clock, but I think Clock versus either sphere would be a good war if both spheres are militarized. I doubt either sphere feels threatened such that they need another ally like the Swamp-Oasis treaty; instead this is just to allow both spheres to find an economic advantage with lower MMR. That's how it's been marketed internally to me by my gov, and I honestly doubt T$/Rose or the rest of HW feels any different about it. Personally, would be happy to see any of the three spheres get into a war because I think any of the matchups would be fun to watch.
  17. Cool man! I’m studying bioinformatics and focus on machine learning. If you ever want to chat or something, reach out! I really appreciate you taking a more rigorous approach to your analyses, and thanks for the 5 PC graph!
  18. Are you taking a data science class? I like the effort you put in to attempt this as an unsupervised learning problem. I’d be a bit careful here though because your first two principal components only capture about 40% of variance from what I can see. Also, just for curiosity sake what was your distance metric for k-means?
  19. Where's the clause that gives me an exception for spying you and @Kiloist II?
  20. I don’t know how much linear algebra experience you have but a line of best fit will always be linear. Other fits will require a different regression. You use the log-linear plot to show data that spans multiple orders of magnitude easily, I.e an exponential function would look linear. I take back the logistic argument though, seeing the full distribution, this looks pretty linear itself just with a bit of variance from the outliers.
  21. @hidude45454 I’d be interested to see what the data looks like before you took the logarithm of the y axis. It looks like it might be logistic (your line of best fit isn’t linear) although I don’t imagine the google sheets graphs you’re using has support for such a regression. Would recommend checking out some python packages like numpy, sklearn, and scipi if you’re interested in the data manipulation and learning more from it. R and matlab are also useful options too if you have access to them!
  22. This is totally unfair and untrue. Automation has made the game more accessible and easier. If anything, it has leveled the playing field since now basically any alliance can access basic tools. And I think we’re at a point for the first time ever that competence refers to more than like the top 10 alliances. It’s also super disrespectful to the dozens of other coders who have given hours to their alliances to create native tech. Creating this stuff isn’t always easy nor is it quick. Shame on you tbh.
  23. Just want to point out that I think ideological disagreements are good and healthy for the game because we should be having discourse from multiple viewpoints. One of the things I've always appreciated about T$, whether you agree or disagree, is that y'all are willing to take a stance and stick with it for the long-haul. That isn't something I personally want to see the lost because more principled actors in the game means more interesting and diverse politics (*coughs in Rose's direction*). The other question, and the one I feel is more at stake here, is how you go about doing it, and it feels like especially after you left Partisan that things have gotten nastier and exhausting to deal with it. Adam nailed the point that you splitting the middle expertly, between pushing your points but also stopping before you got too inflammatory. Issue is that basically nobody is going to be as good at being you as you. And as I said in a previous post, I don't think it's just y'all but also the environment you're in. It's one thing to have eumir be eumir on the forums and then have you making tounge-in-cheek "friend" comments. It's another to have a half-dozen syndi gov and ex-gov relentlessly attacking you in the RON public chat. I don't need to be called an idiot 20 times before I can finish typing a sentence to know that y'all have valid disagreements with me. Having been both your ally and enemy, I can say it sucks on either end. Obviously, this isn't everything at issue here, but I'm trying to leave the comments on current politics to the active politicians.
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