The Zigur Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 The Little Red Book of Cybernations has everything you need to know about the history of this world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mogar Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 Rota gets a mention but I do not? How disappointing. Feel free to send me a PM or query me on IRC if you know how to use IRC, I have no issues giving you a history lesson of Cybernations and answering any questions you might have. I once had to explain cybernations to a waitress at a Japanese restaurant. It was the eve of the disorder war, I'd taken my daughter out for dinner and she told the waitress quite solemnly, "We can't stay very long. My mommy has to get back for war. " I died a little. It was kinda like this thread. That's actually an adorable story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonshy Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 Make Cybernations an app, too? Indeed. Lightweight games in today's world are best played while waiting in queue, waiting for the train, while in the car but not driving, waiting for your food order to arrive, or sprawled out on your bed/couch in comfortable but unhealthy positions. These sorts of games (CN) are meant more as time-fillers, if anything. I once had to explain cybernations to a waitress at a Japanese restaurant. It was the eve of the disorder war, I'd taken my daughter out for dinner and she told the waitress quite solemnly, "We can't stay very long. My mommy has to get back for war. " I died a little. It was kinda like this thread. This makes me want to diplo to Reavers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pansy Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 This makes me want to diplo to Reavers.What is a diplo?We have Meat and Reavers.... are you food? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caladin Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 Hey so I'm brand new to this game and sorta overwhelmed with the amount of stuff to read. I have some experience in Eve Online which seems similar enough in that this game seems to have some components of Corporations (Alliances?) and apparently major wars too given the top posts in the Alliance Announcements forum are declarations. So I know that it'd be wise to know that stuff but I really don't have any clue whose a mover and shaker... I mean I guess those top 10 groups would be but even so I don't know much about them. This game seems fun enough and unique enough, but beyond that I'm sort of lost... one of my coworkers posted a flyer at work advertising this game talking about it being a political/war simulator and how it's open ended in that it's all text based. But the thing is I don't actually know who put it up given it was just hanging on a board in the break room and I happen to work in a rather large office otherwise I'd ask him these questions. So could someone explain the politics of this game in a nutshell? Whose the powerful groups and basically who not to piss off and I guess anything else that could be pertinent in this game... It's sort of overwhelming to browse through the wiki because there's a ton of !@#$ in it and I'm being bombarded out the ass with recruitment messages so if you want to give me some pointers on alliances or even advertise your own then go ahead I guess. Maybe even some recent history or important game events? I dunno... I don't really care to hear this games life story right now, but I figure knowing what's happening now or is the cause of something would be a good idea...also how long does it generally take to get a powerful nation? I know in Eve it's an anything goes kind of deal and I'm curious if that holds true here as well... do I gotta worry about getting scammed by some of these recruiters? -Oni This is somewhat similar to Eve, except the treaties are more fluid; come wartime, everyone gangs up into two oversized coalitions in the hope that their coalition will be able to overcome the other coalition.In terms of the movers and shakers; alliances to note would probably be the New Pacific Order, the New Polar Order and the Independent Republic of Orange Nations .As for who to avoid pissing off, pretty much anyone for the moment is probably a good bet, until you can get into an alliance and learn a bit of the politics.Other things to know pretty much just revolve around how to play the game; just join an alliance and if their even only moderately competent they should have a couple of guides explaining that to you.Finally, alliances to join; naturally, I'll give a quick push to the one I'm in, the New Pacific Order; we are competent, organized and effective, even if a little weaker than we were at our height when we ruled the world as hegemon. We are also a meritocracy, which basically means that if you do a good job you will be promoted through our ranks, and relatively quickly at that.Other alliances to consider really depend on what you actually want; do you want a small, medium or large alliance? Do you want a democracy or meritocracy? Do you want an alliance that avoids the inter-alliance politics or wars or get involved in them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox Fire Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 What is a diplo?We have Meat and Reavers.... are you food? Either your a Reaver, or you're meat... Does this mean Reavers have no allies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Red Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 Either your a Reaver, or you're meat... Does this mean Reavers have no allies? We have meat we're dry aging for tastiness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Emperor Daeg Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 You might find Doom Squad interesting. They're like the little brother of DBDC. And yes, recruitment messages are pretty generic. Yeah, if you join us we offer all them generic things that everybody offers. We might be interesting enough for it to be worth the while to give us a shot. If nothing else we can provide you a quick n dirty education in a cliff notes kinda way. The fun does often hide behind the closed doors... takes a little while to get invited into the back rooms where the movin and shakin happens. I suppose I should actually say something about us too. We are a semi-fringe satellite group, while not likely to lead a coalition anytime soon we are a very good spot to get started, we know the people that get stuff done and work fairly closely with them. We help cover the supply end of the economic scale selling technology in exchange for cash, protection, and guidance... that the ones providing us cash happen to be quite rich, our protectors are strong, and our guides are wise has put us in a comfortable position but has some limitations in that we bask in reflected glory more often than shining on our own or at least we reflect in the limelight of our graduates who we put on the path to success. We also have a lot of the laid back relaxed people and a few with a really twisted sense of humor... what the more serious folk call Lulzists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown Smurf Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 (edited) ITT rota multi Edited October 4, 2014 by Unknown Smurf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oni Posted October 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 I'm gonna have to ask some of you to calm down on the RP'ing in this distinctly OOC forum... it's killing my vibe. And to everyone else, thanks for the help. Some of you seem cool enough and maybe I'll join your alliance one day... if you give me free money then I'll definitely join you and I mean free, not me selling you tech or some other lame ponzi scheme meant to enrich the rich. ITT rota multi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigrun Vapneir Posted October 5, 2014 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 Honestly, there are very few politics left. You see , a funny thing happened since this game began. The game began with burgeoning rivalries , downright hatred and disgust at some alliances and players. Then, IRC became ALL the rage. Everyone slowly began to get to know everyone else OOC. Everyone realized that in game philosophies aside, everyone is a pretty decent person. You know Rush I think you are very close to getting it. But it's not that everyone is such a 'decent person.' Think about it a little more. What happens is that the *leadership* of each alliance finds they have more in common with each other than with their base members, and intra-alliance politics, not inter-alliance politics, moves into the drivers seat. (Not a phenomenon without analogue in international relations in the real world.) There are exceptions, there are personality conflicts, etc. but long term those are not enough to generate the sort of drama most of you want to see. What did drive those conflicts way back in the day had a lot to do with at least the perception, if not the fact, of the rank and file having a real stake in things. We didnt have everyone afraid to post, and when alliances didnt like each other it wasnt a matter of their leaders carefully circling each other and probing for weaknesses while the members are all gagged. I frankly dont see any way to turn back the dial on those changes - but I know that the usual proposal; more mergers and fewer, bigger, alliances; are based on a misdiagnosis of the underlying problem and can only backfire by making it worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baltus Posted October 5, 2014 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 Cyber Nations, despite the name, has very little to do with your actual nation. As you've already guessed most of the actual fun does not happen in-game. Most alliances are pretty similar with the main differences being in structure, size, and culture. Some alliances are invite-only (or you need someone to vouch for you) while others recruit more heavily. Alliances are connected to each other via treaties (bilateral and multilateral) that usually have either optional or mutual defense clauses (with some neutral alliances as exceptions). The huge web of treaties (the treaty web) can get pretty confusing, meaning that wars often require quite a bit of planning in order to pull of successfully. Huge global wars occur about once or twice a year, with smaller conflicts popping up every now and then. The best way to get into the game is to join an alliance (ideally one that's been around a while) and learn from the experienced members. Shameless plug for my own alliance: www.viridianentente.com . We're a pretty cool group; one of the bigger alliances but not too big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox Fire Posted October 5, 2014 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 I'm gonna have to ask some of you to calm down on the RP'ing in this distinctly OOC forum... it's killing my vibe. And to everyone else, thanks for the help. Some of you seem cool enough and maybe I'll join your alliance one day... if you give me free money then I'll definitely join you and I mean free, not me selling you tech or some other lame ponzi scheme meant to enrich the rich. You won't get far without selling tech. People want a return for the cash they give you. Selling tech helps grow both seller and buyer. Its the driving force behind all growth. It helps you, and your alliance as a whole. Many alliances do offer free start up aid. We at IRON do not. We want nations willing to contribute. We do however offer a fancy sum of free cash for completing our academy, which is rather easy to do compared to many academies out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Hakai Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 Fox Fire wants for you to join IRON Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevolutionaryRebel Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 (edited) Bottom line you need to know, Oni, is the commitment required to 'make it' in CN. I have a number of friends that play Eve (a lot of CN people past and present are there too), and whilst there are things like starter packages in that game, development inside this game is slow. By slow, I mean, you'll want to wait at least a year before you can go to war against anyone with nukes. The daily commitment is minimal, but you have to maintain it, in order to make sure that year of waiting doesn't get any longer than it needs to be. As much as I dislike how unavoidable it is, tech trading is the only sustainable way on getting cash as a new nation. Old farts will want you to sign up to 6mil/200 tech deals, but there are plenty of people that will buy less for more. Heck, I ran an entire alliance off 6/100 for over a year and our sellers rarely had an empty slot. Don't get caught in that trap unless you want to spend many boring months as a dependent tech farm. Start-up aid (basically, free aid for new members; generally only done initially to help with nation-building and speed up the development of tech trading infrastructure) is relatively common in larger alliances but as fox points out, not a given. Shopping around for a suitable alliance is worth it. NEVER join the first alliance that offers you membership. Research alliances on the wiki and talk to their members before you pick one. Each has its own 'culture', and a different set of 'friends' and 'enemies'. Pick an alliance with a community of people you get along with and would be comfortable talking to for a long time, because the alliance community is far more interesting and fun than the game itself. Heh. Edited October 6, 2014 by RevolutionaryRebel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Chocolate Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 (edited) Oni joined Goon Order Of Oppression Negligence And Sadism. That should work out fine. (I am not being sarcastic - hard to tell sometimes, I know.) Edited October 6, 2014 by White Chocolate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krashnaia Posted October 8, 2014 Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 (edited) So could someone explain the politics of this game in a nutshell? Whose the powerful groups and basically who not to piss off and I guess anything else that could be pertinent in this game... It's sort of overwhelming to browse through the wiki because there's a ton of !@#$ in it and I'm being bombarded out the ass with recruitment messages so if you want to give me some pointers on alliances or even advertise your own then go ahead I guess. Maybe even some recent history or important game events? I dunno... I don't really care to hear this games life story right now, but I figure knowing what's happening now or is the cause of something would be a good idea...also how long does it generally take to get a powerful nation? I know in Eve it's an anything goes kind of deal and I'm curious if that holds true here as well... do I gotta worry about getting scammed by some of these recruiters? -Oni Individual nations group with other nations to form alliances. Alliances sign treaties with other Alliances to form Blocs. And the treaties and animosity between blocs drive the global political game. To tell it quick, there are basically three sides: - Side A - Side B - The Neutrals The Neutrals are alliances who stand out of politics. They do not mess with other alliances and, until recently, were respected by the others. If you want to watch the lawn grow, join one of these. Green Protection Agency or World Task Force are two examples of Neutral alliances. Side A and Side B are generic names for the two blocs of alliances who at any given moment are plotting to destroy each other. Name, leaders, alliances and relative strengh varies from year to year. Each year there is one or, if we are lucky, two global wars compromising the two main blocs and most of the alliances, and once in a while one of these Globals changes the scenario so much that Side A and Side B break up and reform under new names and shapes. Traditionally, one of the Blocs would be hegemonic in the game. But since the downing of the last Hegemony two years ago, there is no longer an hegemonic Bloc. That has not stopped us from having fun global wars. And that's basically it. Pick an alliance whose theme you like, and carry on. Your alliance will tell you who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. If you don't like it, then switch alliance, and your new leaders will tell you who are now your good guys and your bad guys. Repeat until you find a place you fit in. Edited October 9, 2014 by Krashnaia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oni Posted October 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Oni joined Goon Order Of Oppression Negligence And Sadism. That should work out fine. (I am not being sarcastic - hard to tell sometimes, I know.) You want tech baby? 6mil boku me so hungry baby. Me sell you long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoskia Posted October 9, 2014 Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Honestly, there are very few politics left. False. CN is still 100% about politics. In the past we all believed that the political opinions of the Alliances were really important... the "Golden Age" of CN, when the New Pacific Order ruled the game and some of its members were writing very long political speeches with a strange mix of Fascist and Socialist ideas. Vox Populi! brought the idea of a "terrorist Alliance"... and fought the NPO mostly with Political Speeches and propaganda too. And yet there was a second type of politics that were not perceived as the "real" politics and this second system prevailed and it is very much a democratic system of politics... by far less based on "political ideologies" and mostly based on in-game results and the "pixels" of our nations. The development of the game created some "rules" about how wars are fought... the game never had any in-game tool to sign treaties, but nowadays we all know that they matter. We developed political rules about what happens with rogues, political rules about when it's OK to ask another Alliance to disband (the current political trend is that it's never OK), the post-war reparations are a political issue too... and choosing a "side" in each war is a political choice too (a political choice that involves a lot of strategy). DBDC recently invented new political ways that "hacked" several of the rules that the community had created over the years. That's quite interesting in a political way actually. The "golden age" of CN won't come back, we all know that the "political ideology" of an Alliance doesn't matter much (an Alliance based on Marxism and an Alliance based on My Little Pony can be quite similar in CN) and yet the political choices of an Alliance do matter. CN has always been a political game, it's just that in the past most of us assumed that the politics happened in a specific way that was later discarded by everyone and the "true" politics became by far more clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oni Posted October 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Why isn't it okay to disband other groups? Maybe the reason there aren't more legitimate rivalries in this game is because at the end of the day your alliance will keep on ticking regardless of the outcome of whatever wars are happening and so there's never any danger of "loosing" much beyond a number value. Maybe introducing the idea of perma death for groups will create a new breed of politics which demands adaptation, strategy, and more importantly promotes the rivalries needed to drive the game. It seems to work in Eve so why not here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aineshane Posted October 9, 2014 Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Why isn't it okay to disband other groups? Maybe the reason there aren't more legitimate rivalries in this game is because at the end of the day your alliance will keep on ticking regardless of the outcome of whatever wars are happening and so there's never any danger of "loosing" much beyond a number value. Maybe introducing the idea of perma death for groups will create a new breed of politics which demands adaptation, strategy, and more importantly promotes the rivalries needed to drive the game. It seems to work in Eve so why not here? It was done in the early days, the community then decided it was amoral and they stopped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oni Posted October 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 (edited) So in the early days of the game it happened and a "golden age" happens with a "golden generation" of players created in that maelstrom of tears and hatred and once it stopped years later that golden generation passed on from the game and the politics of it began to die... that sounds like a fair bit of causation if I'm looking at it. Someone should reintroduce a little bit of perma death into it I think! Edited October 9, 2014 by Oni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vladimir Posted October 9, 2014 Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Change doesn't have to come from players leaving the game. The game developed and the politics became more complex -- power became more diffuse and diplomacy became ever more important. We went from individual alliances who could act on their own, to simple treaties, to two blocs, to multiple blocs all tangled together in a treaty web. People used moral arguments that would previously have been pointless to create alliances and to coalesce around enemies. This needn't necessarily have led to any one specific policy, nor does it rule out a reversion in future, but political changes here have had a lot more structural and strategic reasons than individual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oni Posted October 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Well if the games driving force are it's politics and those politics are stagnating due to a lack of of sufficient motivation on the part of players to drive them then wouldn't that be a good reason to introduce (or in this case reintroduce) a motivation for it. To me it would seem like a life and death struggle would introduce much more motivation then the prospect of taking a turn on the throne of the world... plus what good is reigning if you reign in a time of limp-wristed wannabes... the challenge lies in ruling a world of cut-throats and hardened players breed in an age of challenge. (Like the one this previous golden generation seemed to be created in.) I mean every game needs a spark and perhaps that is the spark needed to reintroduce a bit more zest to the otherwise dull buildup to whatever happens next. I mean reading through the wiki some of the early wars seem really !@#$@#$ cool whereas some of the more recent ones seem pretty listless and boring in comparison and I also couldn't help but notice the frequency for these conflicts seems to have slowed even more. Operating with a lack of real danger isn't a recipe for a vibrant and driven community and what is cybernations besides it's community? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krashnaia Posted October 9, 2014 Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 (edited) Well, if some alliance attempts to re-introduce forced disbandment, you can bet all most enough of the other alliances in the game will roll her, ravage her allies, burn her house, and kill her livestock. Edited October 9, 2014 by Krashnaia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.