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Altheus

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  • Gender
    Male

Previous Fields

  • Nation Name
    Magna Graecia
  • Alliance Name
    United Purple Nations
  • Resource 1
    Fish
  • Resource 2
    Water

Altheus's Achievements

  1. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    Yep, I agree with all that, especially Purqua coming down on STA & ODN's side. Although, not for our stats, I just liked STA & ODN more than Valhalla
  2. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    Of course Hoo was friends with Polaris after WoTC but this all happened before that. Still, you could well be right. I knew about your feelings about Polaris although to be fair you weren't on your own. That was the story of CDT though, we were all pulling in different directions. We kept it together until the BiPolar war just blew a hole and very publicly exposed the divisions for everyone to see. I didn't like noWedge because of the OOC relationship crap like everyone else, I didn't like Chefjoe because he was trying to dominate the Purple sphere, the 2nd affected me more so he was a bigger problem. Case in point, I only agreed to joining Poseidon because we were tied in via Legion and Invicta anyway and at least that way we could keep tabs on whatever bollocks Valhalla and mhawk were coming up with, but you already knew that right?
  3. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    Yep, Triyun was always friendly and I genuinely like him back, but it didn't seem like he was in charge. To be fair he didn't give us the impression he thought he was either. Valhalla obviously didn't trust me and they were right to, because I was working against them. Nearly had them too, but Dawny screwed that up. There was a window, when they finally listened to reason and kicked NoWedge out, that I legitimately gave them a chance to show they'd changed, but Chefjoe proved worse, a different kind of awful and I spent the better part of a year trying to show the rest of the Purple sphere that, including the rest of UPN. It was damn frustrating, because outside of BAPS and some micros no-one in Purple seemed to actually like Valhalla but it felt like I was the only one who wanted to do something about it. Actually felt a bit sorry for Ragnarok for basically kicking them out of CDT. They hated us for years after that and poisoned any good relations we had with Superfriends (which were tense anyway) We did it because we were pushing CDT to be more Polaris friendly and they were an obstacle to that (or so we thought, Hoo insisted afterwards we'd got it wrong and that they were ok with ties in that direction, seems unlikely but he might have been right) Anyway, it was a huge mistake and entirely my own fault, because I overestimated CDT's pull and ability to be a force independent of other blocs, but put my heart and soul into making CDT a player and it just didn't pan out. Too many conflicting interests.
  4. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    Interesting reading. NPO's pre-Karma foreign affairs department was terrible, a combination of paranoia in which we found out 2nd hand from others that we weren't to be trusted and incompetance in getting assigned a different diplomat each week who knew progressively less than the last. I wouldn't have minded except that my prefered position was to have no relationship with them at all, in the full-awareness that we were going to be on the same side anyway via Purqua, but the message we were getting from our allies was that NPO was uncomfortable with "friend of a friend" situations and wanted to have a direct relationship, so we agreed to Watling Street Compact to put everyones minds at rest. It was just paper though, no substance. If we were experiencing that I'd be amazed if similiar sized mid-tier alliances weren't getting the same treatment, a significant portion of which weren't as tied into a friend of a friend situation as we were. If it wasn't the reason for losing the Karma war I certainly think it didn't help NPO's case.
  5. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    Talking about DE. What did you really think about Watling Street Compact?
  6. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    "UPN supported DE's entry into CDT, for reasons I have still never been able to figure out, and I hated them" I was firm friends with them, especially the boys from Element. Also remember that in previous guises they had already been long-standing CDT members as HoG and BDC. Finally, I trusted Coolgreen, to keep them on the straight and narrow, as he was good leader. BAPS wasn't a consideration because I knew that push come to shove they would have picked Valhalla over either of us anyway so I didn't bother with them.
  7. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    Interesting viewpoints. We used to talk to Dawny, Jorost and others more than yourself so we got a very different perspective of events in Invicta, but it certainly is interesting to hear it from your end. Although I must admit the notion of us allowing Stickmen into PEACE makes me chuckle.
  8. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    Kae joined UPN because she realised Invicta were never going to join the C&G side and didn't know enough about UPN to realise we weren't going to either. A lot of it had to do with us leaving Poseidon, which wasn't a political move, but a we hate everything Poseidon stood for move *. She basically got the wrong idea of our motives and left in a huff over a miscommunication in CDT about where we were going next. * Valhalla saw that other Continuum allies had their own "subject blocs" and wanted their own. We should never have joined
  9. Altheus

    Reminiscing

    Hi Haflinger. Long time no see. It all feels like an age ago. I really loved Invicta, enough to turn down Dawny's suggestion of merging into UPN because I thought you all deserved more. We had great times, especially when we were pariahs post-Karma. They were the best times.
  10. Very nearly 9 years ago a small group of friends sat drinking in a pub called the Pit and Pendulum talking about what to do with this game called Cybernations they’d discovered. The sensible thing to do would have been to join an established alliance, not least so we could have discovered what the hell we were meant to do, but we were too stubborn for that. So armed with a flag knocked up on google paint, a invision-free forum in lurid shades of lilac and lavender and bags full of enthusiasm, that only newness and novelty can bring, we set out to create our vision of the perfect Purple alliance. We got so much wrong. We totally misjudged the crazy amount of involvement running an alliance demanded, how welcoming certain alliances would be to a new rival and the fact that really getting into the game required IRC (something which has always been a struggle due to living in UK time) It wasn’t long before the original group either stepped aside or quit, leaving only Keyring_Killer, Shade and myself to keep the flag flying. Luckily we were blessed with an influx of established players like Hans, Samo & Pimptastic and new players like Magister, Kauti & Queen Elizabeth who really formed the alliance into what it was in its glory days. To be clear without them and so many others over the last 9 years they’d never have been a UPN. Whilst I sat back, making big announcements, taking all the cool decisions and generally getting on everyone’s nerves they got on with the business of actually making a functional and successful alliance, creating something that was simply beyond my capacity to do. Thank you to everyone that has contributed to the alliance over the years, to Seuwp, Pangui, Tecumseh, Robster, Peggy_Sue & Kevanovia for leading the alliance, to Hans, Magister, Dexomega & DonVox for leading the alliance in all but name, to our recruitment stars over the years including Abdur, Queen Elizabeth, Moondog, Ragwing & Samotopia, to Vlad & Bros for help with our forums, to Cora for so much practical help behind the scenes, to all our long suffering Ministers for running the alliance, our Allies for keeping our backs, our Enemies for entertaining us and most of all for our Members, both past and present for seeing in us something worthy to join. Thank you all for everything, the good times, the times we disagreed (which were still good times) and for making the whole journey a huge, well-loved part of my life for so long. So where from here? Well, here’s the funny news. We’re still not disbanding, that only happens when the last member turns off the lights. We are however dissolving our government, including all our economic initiatives, foreign affairs treaties and general involvement in cybernations life. The New Polar Order, our oldest ally for over 8 years now, has kindly offered to protect us and has offered a home for those that want to be in a more active alliance. The forums at cnupn.org will still be running, for as long as Vlad is willing. I’m tempted to see if we can’t arrange to open up the whole forums, warts and all, so that everyone can see what we’ve been up to in the past. Will get back to you about that as it obviously impacts a lot of people. It’s crazy. This is a browser-based computer game, involving friends I’ve largely never met in person and yet somehow this all matters to me more than other, more polished, games. People talk about community as to the reason why and of course that is true, but I think there is more to it than that. Alliances, blocs, colour spheres, political movements etc. in cybernations have pathos. They have personalities of their own which are a sum-total of their members, their history and their circumstances which have nothing to do with how the game is built and everything to do with the game’s wisdom in not imposing anything on them. They are truly player generated in a way in which some more flashier games can only dream of, bearing little resemblance to mere sides in a computer game. I’ll still be around to chat. If you’ve ever wondered about anything in our past, what we’ve done, why we’ve done them or if you just want to chat about old times then please get in touch. Nothing would make happier to talk to old friends and frenemies. Heck, I can even promise you straight answers right now! Edit: NADC have also graciously decided to protect us indefinitely along with Polaris. Thank you. So this is it for us. The final curtain. Thank you for all the good times The United Purple Nations Ribena Berry Fields Forever
  11. Exactly. Most mergers are doomed to failure because of incompatability and SNX definitely ws, it's not like we haven't been here before. Shame, I mostly liked the alliances that made it up.
  12. Your alliance structure is more reminiscent to me of social anarchism than libertarianism, but it wouldn't be very liberal of us to give you a hard time over that :P Good luck
  13. 9 vs 4 and we're still winning 0 Anarchies vs 5. Thanks for the tech :P
  14. Welcome back. How much do you know about what happened to GGA since you left it? :P Congratulations to GATO for your new government line-up
  15. Wow, long time no see and after all these years I'm glad you still remember us, even if it's only for infamy. We're basically retired ourselves, so don't hold anything I say against current UPN, which is an entirely new animal, far more professional and competant than I ever was. (If you're curious check us out, you joining UPN would surely set tongues wagging for months) ;) It came down to this, if you were ever curious, I really didn't like superfriends and had ambitions to set up CDT as a rival bloc, partly because I thought giving focus to CDT was what it needed and partly because everyone needs a hobby. The execution though was hopeless, for a whole host of reasons: too few people were behind the plan, we were too small, we we took you on when you had better contacts, CDT wasn't remotely united etc. i.e. Total failure and SF smashed us, but it was a lot of fun trying. Were did Ragnarok fit into that? Well, Ragnarok being a member of both blocs wasn't going to work for me, so yes, I did push for Rok's removal from CDT. Perhaps not wise given your growing influence, but heh. Was it personal? No, not from this end, we hardly ever talked so tbh it was hard to form an opinion. We just decided to go after SF in general rather than try and find out if you were actually nice people or not. (Which I'm sure many of you were!) The sad thing was I really cared about CDT and wanted to make it work, but looking back I was probably the main architect of it's failure, but that had less to do with anything SF did and more to do with juggling an ill-conceived foreign affairs policy based on too many treaties leading out of the bloc. Anyway. I should attempt to answer your accusation ;) Was UPN/USN (as you put it) a bad alliance? Actually, foreign affairs-wise, yes I think we were. We spent too much time worrying about CDT, what SF was doing and keeping all our numerous allies happy to have a remotely co-ordinated foreign policy. Also, if UPN/USN was one alliance, we disagreed about everything. Beyond that though UPN had a wonderful recruitment team, a very solid finance team and (at the time you knew us, i.e. pre-Alchemy) a very good internal cohesion within the alliance. So strengths and weaknesses. Anyway, love to hear from you more, especially your side of the story. In private if you'd prefer that to a open letter. Either way, good to see you again, Alt
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