Reverend Ryan's Blog

didn't read but BRING IT

edit: the reps from echelon were them paying back what we sent to them in nocb hth

edit2: CAN YOU IMAGINE IF SPARTA/MHA WAS THE HEGEMONY oh my god this would be the most boring game ever

"It is getting stale" is probably the most compelling argument, simply because this place runs on novelty (or at least the threat of novelty).

Other than that, I don't buy any of it, really...that wars last for several months doesn't owe to the whims of the current leading powers, but the fact that most alliances worthy of being central to a conflict are now capable of fighting for far longer than they would have been a couple years ago. And while the wars themselves get pretty dull after three months straight, they do serve a purpose; winning a war has never been so costly, and it's no longer possible to shred a major alliance in two weeks and be done with them.

There's nothing really wrong with reps. Wars are costly, even for the victor. Without reps, there are no strategic victories, only losses. Also, note that in all of the instances, reps were demanded by the defenders. Except perhaps NPO-DH, but it's arguable whether GOONS was on the defensive side there.. and it's a little uneven, as some like Legion were more capable of paying reps but had a just reason to fight GOONS and did so more nobly, while others like CoJ bandwagoned on the war but were incapable of paying heavy reps.

Reps are often used as a negotiation tool. The longer you stretch a damaging war after being defeated, the more reps you'll have to pay. It's no surprise that longer wars demand higher reps.

Stagnation has little to do with the quantity of wars. It has to do with political change. Every alliance makes its plans, but many of them depend on war for a significant political shift. Nobody likes being the people in a war (that's why you have all these deletions and people dropping AA from war). They like observing and taking part in a political shift. The NpO-VE/DH-NPO war revitalized CN politics for a while and we're still feeling the ripples of political change from the war. The other minor wars who people thought were boring didn't change anything.

If people wanted more wars, they could simply surrender upon realizing that they lost. That didn't happen in the latest global war; many stubbornly stayed in the war to free allies and some refused to admit defeat even when in bill lock.

Wars taking longer to rebuild is just part of modern CN's devotion to technology. It's possible to ZI a very large nation within a week these days. Unless tech gets nerfed, or infra become cheaper, or people start buying less nukes, expect future wars to become increasingly more damaging, no matter who is the most influential.

Most of your points miss, except maybe the 'it's getting stale'. But really, I can't imagine a Dos Equis hegemony being much more interesting. No offense to them, but they're not really the type who produce conflicts, unlike MK/PB. There's nothing stopping Polaris from gaining power either.

Something of a sidenote:

DT was only obliged to pay 5,000 tech; the remainder was to be sent via any source. Not saying this justifies anything, rather just pointing out a bit of a flaw in terms of the "burden of reparations" argument.

oh good, this talking point again.

Quite honestly, if you line up on the opposite side of someone on purpose you deserve to lose a war. You can't fault a lot of what was done in Karma, because you had to make sure the opposite side was broken enough so that you could actually set up a free world. Faulting CnG, MK, and others for charging TOP reps isn't fair either. They were quite clearly attacked wihtout provocation. I think the real reason to take down Hegemonies is when they begin picking on people who were/are their friends or picking on people who have been trying their best not to get on your bad side.

Up until this last war I would have disagreed with you on this, but my mind was changed with the attacks on people who have stood by the current hegemony last war; combined with an unfair attack on NPO. I also believe this hegemony has to go pretty soon.

As expected, a new hegemony took Pacifica's place. At first it was called "Super Grievances", because of the strong SF-CnG connection in 2009/2010. Now we live in the era of Doomhouse and Pandora's Box. To make it easier, I will call it the MK Hegemony. Why? Because just like NPO in 2008, the Mushroom Kingdom is thought of as the central alliance of the hegemony whether they like it or not. The MK Hegemony has lasted more than two years already.

What you gloss over here is if we actually are the "central" alliance of the "hegemony". I'd argue that several alliances are at least close if not equal to or greater than us in political influence in the PB/DH/C&G sphere: Umbrella, ODN, and VE come to mind and there are others not directly in that sphere on our "side" like TOP and FARK.

To connect what GOD does, an alliance we aren't all that close with and have disagreed with before, to the "MK hegemony" is silly. The only reps that we had any real part in that you name are the Bipolar and DH wars. The rest were done by others with their own power and influence.

The length of wars is primarily due to the very large war-chests of many nations which take a long time to impact and the use of peace mode.

To connect what GOD does, an alliance we aren't all that close with and have disagreed with before, to the "MK hegemony" is silly. The only reps that we had any real part in that you name are the Bipolar and DH wars. The rest were done by others with their own power and influence.The length of wars is primarily due to the very large war-chests of many nations which take a long time to impact and the use of peace mode.

Shhh, you're going to destroy one of their major talking points!

I was in SF gov throughout the "SuperGrievances" era, and it was not a hegemony.

Excuse me, we earned that money.

Also calling it the "MK Hegemony" is a huge misnomer for a variety of reasons.

Heh. So I guess the mighty GOONS war machine didn't too so good compared to MK and Umbrella. Guess that "everyone attack GOONS" strategy worked

How,Why,What?

make sense please.

c.) TOP/IRON/TORN/TSO/DAWN(Bipolar)

The worst of those reps were for TSO. It nearly crippled them. Thankfully several alliances waived reps, an honorable thing to do, and I have gotten to see my friends in TSO make headway as they grow in both stats and community the last few months.

What's wrong with high reps? There's nothing more fun than silencing your opponents for a few months and forcing them into economical stagnation, then proceeding to trim them again and repeat the cycle. It's so fun driving people out of CN either due to boredom or frustration with high reps.

/sarcasn

This is a perfect display of an author having a particular conclusion in mind at the beginning of writing, and then warping the facts as much as necessary to fit that conclusion (and even then, doing a piss poor job).

If you take your head out of the sand and look around a little, it'll become apparent how ridiculous it is to claim MK is at the centre of everything and pulling all the puppet strings.

MK more or less voluntarily gave up their hegemony in October when they did their treaty wipe thing. Before that they had treaties with Pandora's Box (wasn't formed yet but they would have had three), Superfriends, CnG (obviously), and other groups like AZTEC and Polar/STA. That kind of treaty spread is the most important hallmark of a hegemonic force in my opinion. But since then, MK's ties are concentrated to just CnG and PB. If you add other alliances, the treaty spread gets wider but really by the time you've linked together all the alliances necessary to make one big smothering hegemonic force, there are too many alliances behind the driver's wheel to even justify calling it a hegemony.

If Polar became the new dominant force the world would die faster.

Polaris will never become the new power. They are just not smart enough and their approach to foreign affairs reveals little to no intelligence. It didn't before noCB, it didn't after noCB and it still doesn't. Military prowess generates allies, but the mystical idea that Polaris could be any good at war is long gone too.

I am also confused. Who are you to say what DH gets from NPO? You and the gang of the "we want more wars so make them shorter and more frequent" fail to understand that the main engine in the game is not war but political motivation. The consideration that more wars would happen without reason as long as they were shorter is delusional at best. What makes us move is competition, it's the will to be on the top of the mountain. Generic and apolitical war accomplishes nothing of that. Shorter wars accomplish nothing of that. Letting alliances off the hook without any sort of material advantage to the winners accomplishes nothing of that. If people have nothing to gain from it they won't do it.

Allowing NPO to escape with their upper tier intact would be poor strategically at best and pointless at worst. So yeah, between asking reparations from NPO or beating up their upper tier, beating up their upper tier makes more sense, gives DH the advantage over NPO and allows for a faster recovering as it doesn't tie up aid slots.

I'd like to see a Polar-dominated world just to watch how quickly everybody would get together and beat the piss out of them.

didn't read but BRING IT

edit: the reps from echelon were them paying back what we sent to them in nocb hth

edit2: CAN YOU IMAGINE IF SPARTA/MHA WAS THE HEGEMONY oh my god this would be the most boring game ever

You don't remember the Continuum?

I had fun.

I disagree, xiph would be a bad pacifican. That is all.

....what if Sparta or MHA became the dominant power?

MK more or less voluntarily gave up their hegemony in October when they did their treaty wipe thing. Before that they had treaties with Pandora's Box (wasn't formed yet but they would have had three), Superfriends, CnG (obviously), and other groups like AZTEC and Polar/STA. That kind of treaty spread is the most important hallmark of a hegemonic force in my opinion. But since then, MK's ties are concentrated to just CnG and PB. If you add other alliances, the treaty spread gets wider but really by the time you've linked together all the alliances necessary to make one big smothering hegemonic force, there are too many alliances behind the driver's wheel to even justify calling it a hegemony.

What? The pretty much re-signed every important treaty except Polaris and STA. Then formed DH with two members of PB. MK's move shifted the treaty web for Polar and STA by isolating them, but not for themselves in any signifigant fashion. Not to mention the fact that they added TOP which put them a chain away from IRON and all that brings.

So really right now they are tied directly to PB, CnG and are 1 chain away from SF, Duckroll and Dos. That's a massive portion of the non-neutral NS on Bob.

The most important part of that is that PB, SF, CnG and the alliances that make up Dos have fought on the same side as MK in most every situation since WoTC. Until there is some proven shake up in that, then it can only be assumed that those blocs will continue siding with MK.

As to their members trying to deny the fact that they are the central player in the current hegemony, well it's probably the fact that Archon ends up being the public face of your coalitions various war efforts.

And once again it didn't help in many eyes that Stormsend said the read reason for this war was MK boredom. Their members wanted war and it was delivered via blatant aggression. Although the reasoning did tend to change with the day, I believe that reason was the most honest and likely correct one that was put forth.

Especially after it became clear that this effort wasn't truly related to the NpO theater as that one peaced out weeks before this one.

Regardless who is in the top, others will strive to depose them. That is the nature of the world we live in.

MK influence over the majority will wane eventually; it is just a matter of when. I believe their recent aggression has hastened that event.

Stop pulling my strings MK.

I'd like to see a Polar-dominated world just to watch how quickly everybody would get together and beat the piss out of them.

Didn't say it had to be Polar. Just someone other than NPO or MK/DH. Maybe GOD