[Onward Together]

38 minutes ago, Matt2004 said:

~snip~

Given the timing, this seems like a last-minute publicity stunt.  It's action not forum announcements that will change the minds of Orbis.  I honestly hope you prove me wrong.

[World Ellie Day]

Live action feed of the purple ellie in action. 

[Winter is Coming]

10 minutes ago, Mikey said:

On the one hand, I can get behind overthrowing Squeegee. On the other hand, when I retake my rightful throne, any remaining rebels might do well to remember what happened to the last few "Kings" in the North...

Yes! @Squeegee the rightful king has returned.  Think of all the windows that you'll have time to clean.
@Darth Ataxia I'm willing to be your Lady Olenna and Purple Wedding the sh*t out of SK if you can guarantee that Tommon Mikey will take his rightful place.
 

[[Bloc] Episode IV - A New Hope]

22 minutes ago, Daveth said:

House Stark is an independent kingdom within Westeros, and has no affiliation with the Six Kingdoms whatsoever.

As much as it pains me to say this, I've been forced by treaty obligation to claim Mikey Squeegee as the true king in the north.  

[[Bloc] Episode IV - A New Hope]

Congratulations on the new bloc.  I hope you guys protect @Asierith well.  

[$yndicate Bu$ine$$week Exclu$ive: Wolf of Wall Street Liquidates Company Assets]

Enjoy productivity Leo.  Gratz to Adam for being the new Canadian.  

[Is there any fascist alliance in politicsandwar?]

I'm way too lazy to read all of this, but fwiw the concept of some idealized racial and ethnic is the foundation of fascism.  Fascism is only functional insofar as ethnonationalism is enforced.  People buy into the rigid social structure, bigotry and economic controls for some semblance of its "for the party" or "for the country."  This presents as some master race like the aryans in Germany, or–with your beloved Franco–the brutal crusade against the 'Jewish Masons' and the 'Moorish communists.'  Fascism is inherently a gateway to allowing bigotry, and I've got the lineage to understand that personally.  Understanding that institutional oppression towards "the other" enshrined in fascism will help you to understand why it's mostly not tolerated in Orbis even if it's allowed.  

Speaking from experience, the models that do best here are meritocratic and usually authoritarian/benevolent dictator-type of governments.  If you're here for fascism, you're pushing the wrong level, and I'd suggest you reevaluate your priorities.  It's not a joke to some people to even RP prejudice, racism or any ideology presenting some form of structural violence as a tent.  

[6/28/2020 - War Slot Filling, Removing Beige]

Hi @Alex, I appreciate the answer you gave us on the reasons explaining your decisions, but I was hoping to add a few factors for your consideration which you may or may not have  included in your original analysis:
A) This completely breaks down the war system.  Without beige, first-strike advantage is enormous as all you need to do is hold down your opponent, who has no chance of building back up.  For some troop categories, you can only get 40% back with a double buy.  Combined with the recent score change mechanics, you can't even use low military to your advantage.  Part of the game has always been about competency in understanding the mechanics and strategizing around them, but now it seems like the goal is just to have the most button-pushers on one side blitzkrieg-ing someone else.  
B ) This will destroy the raid economy.  A lot of the looting and raiding that occurs at the lower tiers is only possible because beige time allows nations to build-up resources.  This sorely hurts newer nations whose economies are largely dependent on raiding, and by extension, the game economy will suffer with resource prices shooting up as a major source of excess resources is effectively diminished.

C)  This will greatly increase member attrition.  During war, one of the largest contributors to the loss of members from alliances and from the game is extended periods of time of not being able to do anything.  We saw that with last war, avoiding beiges–at great effort to implement I might add–incentivized people to go inactive and leave.  Now, we're getting rid of that protection, so anyone can hold another down indefinitely.  This allows for an even worse abuse of mechanics than the last war, and the consequences on the game will potentially be grave.  

D) As a meta note, we aren't giving enough warning or input on decisions like this.  I've noticed that you've put up votes before, and have tried the democratic approach.  We all appreciated that, but in such a large decision as this, none of the community at-large seemed to be apprised.  That is disappointing, to say the least.  I'd like to think we, as a whole, should be involved in the decision-making and path of the game.  Giving us warning and room for discussion can help to calm uproars like the one here.

Thanks for listening.  

Hopefully, it helps o7  

[Adri Out!]

8 minutes ago, Adrienne said:

This is terrifying

You're the one who posted a gif of someone mic-dropping a cucumber.  

[Adri Out!]

We'll miss you Niz.  Rest easy o7

 

All hail King Ben of Fro!

[[Treaty] An Oath Stronger Than Valyrian Steel]

Damn't we did it again.

[[Announcement] Moving Forward]

28 minutes ago, Kiloist II said:

The Queen has spoken. All hail Ri

Let us out of the basement.  Please, I'm begging here.

[Are we willing to forgive?]

I don't feel like the OWR-Cam beef is the best way to put Cam in a good light @Abbas Mehdi lol.  That being said, I've known @King Arthur longer and perhaps better than most of you.  I think we had the first embassy with them outside of SCX-sphere (at the time), I've worked closely running a bank for him, and I count him as a friend.  

From all of my experiences with them, I gathered that the war and the war plans CB was not something they were a part of.  It was a situation they were thrown into.  On the other hand, they're a loyal bunch and stuck by their allies for quite a while.  I think they ran out of resources very, very early on, and they still stayed in the war.  Yet as the war continued, it is true that Cam was a moderate actor but that moderation in the face of no influence translated into a lack of results.  IIRC, the biggest fear Cam had was retribution and a lack of protection if they left the war.  They were willing to leave along with TcW and co in that new bloc until things got complicated by the BoC/NP shenanigans.

I don't think its right to absolve them of all guilt, but, at the same time, this is an alliance who tried to be loyal to its allies and protect its community without real the influence or access of IQ mainstays or people like Under and Sphinx.  I can somewhat relate to that struggle even if I don't exactly agree with how they handled it.  And frankly there is a lot more sincerity in Cam's experience than other alliances who left with the tide or simply wanted to hug pixels with the upper tier.  They have their work cut out for them, but I think that was inherent in their treaty with Rose.  A step forward for Cam and for changing the political dynamic.  

To be clear though, I don't think pushing the IQ shtick helps anyone (that's mostly aimed at @Epi who I'm hoping guessing is trolling).  And the SCX raiding policy carbon copy is a bad look as I've expressed privately.  

[Are we willing to forgive?]

I think it's a bit naive to say that we should forget the past.  Last war really sucked.  In terms of players lost, disbandments, and pettiness, it is unparalleled.  And that same past should and hopefully will inform the future on how to prevent such conditions from being recreated.  I don't ever want to relive that again, and I'm sure others don't either.  People will keep their eyes out for actors who seem liable of repeating those mistakes.  To be clear though, I'm not advocating war–I abhor the idea of personal grudge-based warfare–but the idea of failing to recognize and learn from history might be just as worrisome.

[SNN-Big Trouble in Little Keegoz]

As an aside (from a somewhat objective onlooker), I believe this whole piece of drama to be not worth most people's time.  Its mainly receiving attention by virtue of the dearth of drama that a 6-month NAP provides.  Further, I personally have no stake in this, and this is just my individual view on what is being shown.  Feel free to correct me if the limited information available warps this perspective.  

But to briefly bite on what's going on, it would seem that Sphinx and Odin, based on the facts presented in the log, have a somewhat legitimate point on being owed a considerable amount of money and resources.  If I were in that position, I'd want my money back.  Now, life happens, and it's later explained by Aku that NP financials had a tough go of it, so you open up for a compromise.  I think Sphinx/Odin attempted to do that.  But that's about where they being in the right ends.  

One thing the last war taught us is that without a semblance of trust or good faith, things won't go anywhere.  Leaking, harboring leakers, and/or a lack of sufficient communication on those actions can facilitate such distrust.  It makes it really hard to strike a deal or to even have productive conversations.  Keegoz and Kev have a valid gripe there, and I don't know if I'd feel differently in their shoes.  

I feel like that cliche parenting line where you tell your kid that "you went from right to wrong by..."  Unfortunately, that's the case here.  Here's a suggestion: go back to DMs and try to listen to each other before dirty laundry gets dumped on here.  This is already a toxic place filled with pettiness, and getting the satisfaction of the circle jerk or faux outrage is not going to solve your problems.  Constructive conversations will.  

At the end of the day, I think it's important to note that whatever the result is and wherever your personal grudges lie, hundreds if not thousands of players rest on your decisions.  I wish y'all the best of luck of figuring this out.  I hope–for the sake of a deeper level of politics–you do.

[5/14/2020 - 4 New Projects, Nation Score Change, and more]

@Alex

Hi, there seems to be a bug with bauxite production.  I think it still calculates the production bonus from the base of 6 mines versus 10.  

Just some simple math here to figure this out:

4946 * 3 * 1.3889 - 1600 = 19008.4982

23624.6 + 1600 = 25224.6 -> 25224.6/(4946*3) = 1.7 or 70% bonus

 

I'm not sure if this was intended or not, but I didn't get that from your report and there's still the inconsistency with the shown bonus production value.

This will significantly affect how we approach our builds, so any comments/fixes on this would be really appreciated.  Thank you in advance.

 

[[TREATY] Excalibur is a Lightsaber???]

Ok @Mhearl... @King Arthur was my fwend before yours.  
Congratulations though ❤️.  

[[RoH] EXTRA! EXTRA! Read All About It!]

Shout to Rose for showing y’all what it means to be an ally.  Your chicanery with IF was disappointing to say the least.  

Please be better.   

[$yndicate missive on recent events]

I’d just like to point out that these events in their entirety should make no one happy.  It’s really disappointing all around, and we ought to maintain that solemnity.  I, for one, will not engage in hitting my enemies while they’re down.  Thank @Prefonteen for responding appropriately o7.

 

Hopefully,  we can move on from the past and make a future where we don’t repeat these mistakes.  

[God have mercy on Orbis]

4 minutes ago, Caleope said:

Welcome back from the dead! Have fun storming the castle

Don't give this guy the time of day, Cal.

Note that I have no sympathy for TMC nor what they represent, but Minesome here is an edgy troll who uses Nazi language and symbols that make people uncomfortable even when called out on it.  
That doesn't even begin to mention how he stole OPSEC sheets and documents from TMC and attempted to leverage them against them while hiding in BoC-affiliated alliances.  Yeah, he's in large part responsible for this whole second wind of the war for actions that aren't too dissimilar to the bank thefts your coalition claims to be against.  

He should rightfully be ignored and left in hapless ignominy.

[Peace]

1 hour ago, Epi said:

Minesome was a member of TCW, BoC then VM'd, he only ever couped micros for like...100mil? overall. 

Minesome made Nazi jokes to my face in our embassy after he was made aware of my background.  As far as I'm concerned, he can be rolled into oblivion for disrespecting my family and community as he did.  I have no qualms.  

[Peace]

1 hour ago, Curufinwe said:

Nah, I'm pretty confident that you and Gorge are still sh*t people.  Thanks for your concern though

Ok, you're all sh*t people.  Let's not get too excited here.  

I hate you all.  

[Peace]

19 minutes ago, JT Jag said:

Well. It's a start.

One small step in Orbis.  One giant leap for Orbiskind.

[Peace In Our Time]

29 minutes ago, Jazz R Oppenheimer said:

TLE formally surrendered and signed the surrender. They broke a formal treaty, and there is no action that justifies breaking a signed treaty. Also, TLE has no tie to The Immortals which was the only alliance attacked by GOONS, and only after they admitted that they were going to hit us. So the idea that their actions are defensive in nature is also incorrect. They're bandwagoners and will be treated as such.

 

TLE did not declare due to any treaty obligation, nor was it after Pantheon was countered, it was after the Immortals were hit on the morning of Jan 11th.

You're playing with words.  An in-game NAP is a mechanic designed to prevents wars declared by errant members and to symbolize that relationship on the treaty web is not diplomatically relevant.  Those lines are about as meaningful as sheepy's continued promises to actually fix the game (aka they don't mean shit).  The treaty you link does have force to it as part of the global politics, but I believe Pantheon entered as soon as TI was blitzed by GOONS.  As Pantheon received counters from alliances other than GOONS, TLE had the right to join at Pantheon's call (which they did at update).  Also, we had this conversation in TLE's DoW thread where I explained this to you and @Richard Payne III clarified that he did use this as a CB.  

22 minutes ago, Comrade Marx said:

Whoa there, partner. You're unraveling hundreds of words of bullshit Cooper spent a lot of time working on. Now he is going to need to find other micro alliances to fear monger into hitting GOONS.

I have no interest in arguing here rather I'm just telling you the facts of the matter.  Can we please leave meaningless provocations out of this?  I am trying to engage in good faith discourse, and I hope that goal can be mutual. 

[Peace In Our Time]

2 hours ago, Salt Meat said:

TLE canceled a NAP and attacked us, in order to join in on TMC/NP's aggressive war.

An in-game treaty has nothing to do with the diplomatic realities.  As I've tried to explain to y'all, TLE had a valid option to enter defensively through their previous treaty to Pantheon (I believe that treaty was since cancelled/expired) and Schrute Farms.  I don't believe they entered until Pantheon was hit AND countered by other alliances, representing an expansion of the war.  This chain of events constitutes a valid defensive entry coherent with adherence to a NAP in-game treaty notwithstanding and frankly irrelevant.  

If y'all want to contest TLE's CB, then I suggest actually discussing their intent because that is what you're trying to get.  I've known them to be nice people, but in order to be coherent with treaty definitions the accusation you're looking to make is not of breaking a NAP but acting in bad faith.  I'm willing to have that conversation, and explain positions there, but this sound-bite propaganda bits aren't productive for constructing arguments on this stage.  

I mean this with all the respect towards yourself and your alliance.  I just hope that we can keep our discourse organized, on-task and within set conventions albeit perhaps that's too high of a standard for all of us.

14 hours ago, Roquentin said:

When did we blitz our allies? tS cancelled and there were no wars on them before.

In this war, NPO has:
- Hit OFA (their coalition ally who later disbanded for "beiging too much")

- Participated in the circumstances that resulted in CU's disbandment

- Blitzed/Aid a blitz on TFP when Quichwe got mad at Roq for threatening moderation over a treasure deal

- Aided allies who systematically hit uninvolved protectorates, including AD, CC, HA, and an assortment of previous alliances who had already been months at war.  AD and CC both disbanded and/or merged.

- Conspired to hit their allies in T$/HS

- Hit OWR/CTO who wished to be peaced out

- Actively extended the war to make people quit the opposing coalition, delete nations and have alliances disband
--------

Call your actions what you will, but you don't have much ground to stand on.