FA guide

[Yang]

I wrote this for Rose, right before I leave. But I figure some other people don't have a proper FA dept set up, and honestly the more people run FA well, the more interesting the game becomes. So here's a guide with all the juiciest parts removed.

 

The job of FA is to win the wars.

 

Milcom addresses the tactical part of wars, what to do, when, where, how.

 

FA addresses the strategic parts. FA determines who is on whose side. When there's a threat, FA should find out first. When the alliance or coalition is in a bad place, it's FA's job to disarm, delay, or dig them out of the pit.

 

It's common practice to put the most extroverted person in FA. But often much better to put the most cunning person. It requires a lot of problem solving, mostly in regards to people, and a lot of those problems don't always have solutions.

 

I would break down the job of FA into three tasks:

1. Public relations
   
2. Personal relations
   
3. Wartime communication
   

 

Public Relations

 

PR is effective for almost everything. In almost every global war, the alliance with the lowest PR often loses. People want to feel good about wars, they want some moral backing behind something as risky as starting a war. It's politically cheap to hit someone who isn't very well liked.

 

Being in a popular alliance increases internal morale and war performance. And it attracts people from outside the alliance who are looking for a new home.

 

Once wars end, you'll get better terms if you're a "nice" alliance. It's difficult to place harsh terms onto a popular alliance.

 

Don't dismiss the opinion of alliances that aren't on your side. If anything, they're the ones you want to influence.

 

PR is pretty simple. Just don't do things that make you look bad. This seems obvious, but surprisingly many violate this. Don't insult people when you get nothing out of it. Or even if you want to be an ass, be an enjoyable one. If you can just maintain some slightly positive public presence, you'd be well ahead of the curve.

 

You do have to handle false accusations, especially on the OWF. Be careful not to lob false accusations either - this harms your own credibility and makes you look salty.

 

If your members are being idiots in public, reel them back. Vocal members determine an alliance's image more than their gov sometimes. Encourage the good shitposters to shitpost.

 

 

Personal Relations

 

In a world of conflicting treaties, the treaty with the deepest connection takes priority. If an alliance has two treaties on one side and two treaties on another side, they will join the side they like the most. If two allies are being equally attacked, they often choose to defend the ally they like the most.

 

Build friendships, very real ones, and build them deep. If you have a choice between having lots of friends and having good friends, go for good friends.

 

Most of the real conversation goes on in private chats. People don't want to say personal things in a public chat room where everything can be seen and screenshot. Try to get access to as many private chats as possible. This can be as simple as a joint channel or even playing a game together.

 

For the same reason, forum embassies matter a lot too. Heavy topics require lengthy responses. Smarter leaders want to think and reread what they say before replying to a controversial topic. Forums are the best place to ask the hard questions, especially to enemies. I find them far more effective to figure out an enemy's motives than sending spies.

 

People will treat you the way you treat them. If you want people to do favors for you, do favors for them.

 

It's also important not to ditch people when they're doing badly. If anything, people will often remember the favors you do for them when they're in a bad place.

 

 

Wartime

 

FA's job is handling the grander strategy during a war.

 

If you're expecting a war soon, you might want to keep in updating allies to arrange fast counterblitzes. Every hour counts between getting hit and countering.

 

FA monitors how allies are doing. They pass down information from allies to milcom. It's milcom's job to assign nations to help allies. FA keeps the flow of information running smoothly so that milcom only needs to worry about assigning targets.

 

FA monitors the status of enemy coalitions as well, to see whether an enemy alliance is going to break, or whether they're doing unusually well. In the early stages of a war, this is vital so that the resources are funneled to the right fronts.

 

And when initializing a war, please post a CB. There's this trend of not posting CBs recently. CBs strengthen your side's will to fight. A good CB means that your members and your allies will stay in the fight longer and the enemy's side is more likely to capitulate.

 

CBs don't have to be very strong. But they should be there so that people don't just think that they're being manipulated for some personal grudge.

 

In peace talks, be respectful. Make active effort to understand what the other side is thinking. If the opponent feels you empathize with them, you're much more likely to come to an agreement.

 

 

Treaties

 

Every treaty has resonating effects. Every alliance you sign will please some and displease others. Every treaty comes with their own baggage and possibility of chaining you into a war that you don't want to be in.

 

More treaties do not make you safer. 

 

Aim for high quality allies, not quantity.

 

Mergers are, in general, not good. They'll give you more score, sure. But many mergers are also a stability hit, some bigger than others. You'll be forced to take on some people you may not want and can't kick. You'll often have to give out some gov positions too. The mergers that work usually try to fill out empty gov slots, not add new ones.

 

Protectorates are an investment. Don't protect someone just because they're a friend. Protect someone only when you're going to help them succeed. Ideally a good protectorate will also be someone you fear or admire a little. They're alliances that you think can grow bigger than yours. If you think these guys are just going to fail, then do them a favor and don't protect them.

 

If you're going to splinter and start an alliance, make sure you fill the gov slots really quickly. The new alliance buzz wears off in about a month, and if it's not a rocket ship to the Top 15 by then, you're just trapped with a lot of responsibility and little fun.

 

The strength of an alliance is not by its numbers and stats, but by its leaders. Great leaders can change the stats really quickly and make the most out of what they have. Don't just look at the person at top. Their high and low gov line ups matter a lot. Remember that many alliances are not just led by gov, but also some people who choose to remain general members or low gov.

[Anneal]

When most of the stuff here is common sense but alliances over the years fail to follow anyways.

 

I'll miss you anyway, though, especially talking on the Discord and all. 

[Yang]

When most of the stuff here is common sense but alliances over the years fail to follow anyways.

 

I'll miss you anyway, though, especially talking on the Discord and all. 

 

I'll still be on discord. I join this game for the chat rooms lol

[Dubayoo]

When most of the stuff here is common sense but alliances over the years fail to follow anyways.

 

I'll miss you anyway, though, especially talking on the Discord and all. 

 

Yea, I have to agree with this...

 

...and unfortunately, it's not that good of a guide because of that.  

 

A good guide doesn't describe common sense.  It explains common sense.  

 

The guide gives the impression that FA is something you either get or you don't.  There's no detailed analysis of extroversion, cunningness, morale, popularity, etc.

 

That said, if this guide is accurate, then it suggests this game is very broken.  I say this especially from lines like, "Build friendships, very real ones, and build them deep."

 

Games are played to escape for fun from real life, not remind us of it.  If you're building real friendships, then you've contradicted the point of playing a game.

[Yang]

"Guide" is a misleading word. Maybe "checklist" might be better, just not as catchy. It's not there to hold anyone's hand through anything. But rather to improve on existing alliances which have a lot of these holes in their FA, whether new ones or the ones that have been around for years.

 

I kept this as absolutely compact as possible. It's targeted at experienced FA people and every one of these is something one alliance or another have missed.

 

Other departments like milcom, IA, econ, have clear job descriptions. FA tends to go in the direction of "let's post non stop on 20 discord servers and get burnt out."

 

 

 If you're building real friendships, then you've contradicted the point of playing a game.

 

A lot of us play MMOs for the social part. There are even people who fly around, meet each other, make out, get married. It's fun!

 

But regardless of whether it's the best way to play, anyone who doesn't play a politics game that way will be at a disadvantage. Friends > infra. Friends > big faceless ally. Friends playing a game together don't complain about 100% taxes or losing several wars in a row. It's surprisingly not a very casual game.

[Kurdanak]

Every time someone loses a war, they should be forced to read this and Kemal's guide until they do better.

[Chidz]

On 6/5/2017 at 10:16 AM, Dubayoo said:

That said, if this guide is accurate, then it suggests this game is very broken.  I say this especially from lines like, "Build friendships, very real ones, and build them deep."

 

Games are played to escape for fun from real life, not remind us of it.  If you're building real friendships, then you've contradicted the point of playing a game.

Bruh, have you never made friends playing games before? Like a crap ton of people play games exclusively to build friendships lol

[Dubayoo]

13 hours ago, Chidz said:

Bruh, have you never made friends playing games before? Like a crap ton of people play games exclusively to build friendships lol

Yea, but those people usually ruin the games by creating a clique that outcasts anyone they don't like.  The population gradually whittles down over time, and developers are afraid to confront the clique because it's the evidential player base.

There's nothing wrong with creating friendships, but they should be aside from game strategy itself.