Oh happy day!
Entry posted by Syzygy
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Now thats a way to start a day... Waking up and see: Damn! I am late. Veerrry late. And it's cold. And rainy. And my wife took the car so the only way to go to work is by motorcycle. Ohhh, does God really hate me?
So, of course ignoring all speed limits, I drive the 20 km to work... and around 3 km before I arrive I get trapped behind a snail-speed heavy goods truck platoon with police escort (must be around 5 trucks carrying some kind of highly sensitive chemicals)... and that sucks, because I cannot pass it.
8:05 in the morning... I should have been at work 8:00... I hail my motorcycle, but 5 minutes late still sucks.
But - GOD DOES LOVE ME. Nobody else is there (we have an advanced training lecture today). Appearently all the other guys are trapped in the traffic jam too. Thank God my wife took the car.
So, shortly after I get the message from a secretary that the whole thing is delayed by 2 hours, that leaves lots of free time to abuse the companies internet for my personal pleasure. And that, by definition, brings me to CN.
Now, first thing I notice, game update log notice. Oha - it seems that after narrowing the war-declaration range from 50-200% to 75-133% yesterday, now the +/- 250 ranks override has been implemented too. Very good, because that stops all these "artificial borders" which some people tried desperatedly to achive or to avoid (depending on their goals 
). The smaller update for the bills/tax screens is also nice. A good day for CN, even while some raiders my cry about the fact that their victims from now on will be a bit stronger.
Will this change war in CN overall? A bit. It will of course not prevent 10 on 1 war declarations, but definitely help the attacked side because they cannot be tripled by entirely guys of twice their own size. Does it "make the game boring"? I disagree, because almost the only ones who complain are raiders and these claim to "do it for the fun" - well, having a target that can at least strike back is more fun than someone who just takes the beating and holds still, right? Or, are they lying and just complaining that their theft is now a bit more risky? Who knows.
The main question is: Is CN boring without war? And if yes - why? The answer for me is relatively simple: The war-system is almost the only way for nations to really interact. All other systems, be it senate, trading, aiding, building are so very simple, they require almost no effort and few to none cooperation, no negotiations, no nothing. I remember my first days in CN and it was rather funny to have big guys offering me 50k or 100k for a trade agreement - and negotiating with them to increase that amount - but nowadays everyone is spammed with 3M cash for tech, or joining an alliance or a trade circle - cash means nothing any more and is also limited to 3M at most. There is no real politics in the game, all that is outside the game (IRC and boards), and to be honest the important politics of all major alliances are done by a handfull of people. People are complaining that the game "has lost 10,000 players!" - but face it, we could lose another 20,000 and nothing would really change here as long as the top50 of all the big alliances simply stay. Large parts of the players simply "don't take part" in all what makes the real 'fun' in CN.
How can that be changed? Well, the game needs more thrilling systems in ALL sectors, not only war.
- Allow 'Contracts' for trading (agreed duration, agreed payment, cancellation penalty if cancelled earlier).
- Allow sale of military units (including CMs, Tanks, Airforce).
- Create a "Marketplace" for each nation, where it can offer things: Tech, Military Units, Resources for a price the ruler sets. Other nations can simply "scan the market" for offers, and agree to 'buy' whatever the other nation offers.
- Secret aid. Damn this game NEEDS secret aid. Seriously.
- Aid cap. Increase it for higher up nations while preventing transfer of more cash down to newer nations.
- More politics. Create a Team Parliament besides the Team Senate and give it different powers. Allow way more nations run for that Parliament (30-50) and base their decisions on majority polls (unlike Senators who can act on their own).
- Greatly change the Bonusgoods. Seriously. If you make them REALLY different in boni, it is LUCRATIVE to EXPORT the things you have built with them. -5% Aircraft cost? Whats that? Thats peanuts. Nobody cares for that. But if you have a Bonus of -40% on Aircraft costs, you could sell them on the market and people without Bonus would even pay for them. That is how you create business and a flourishing market. Same goes for Tanks, CMs and Navies. Even tech - nations specialized in techproduction can offer tech for lower prices, getting more offers...
- Individualization. Let Navy vessels have names (When produced they are just numbered "New Syz-AC-0001" for my first Aircraft Carrier for example, but I can rename them if I want and this name would also be used in the battle reports if it is sunk). Let people rename their Great Monuments and Great Temples. "Great Arc of New Syzygia" for example... Create a moderation position where a moderator approves personally designed flags to upload (to prevent people using porn or such stuff). One Mod can handle dozens of requests per day. More space in the nations Bio field and allow basic formatting (underline, bold, italic, colors). Let rulers place links to their Blog, their Alliance Board or their Wiki into the Bio/Nationview (abuse will result in warnings and bans, at least for sanctioned alliances that should be as easy as implementing their own flag). Team Color Skins.
As you can see, lots of things to do, but today really was a good day in the right direction. Lets hope for the implementation of more good ideas pretty soon.
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