RevolutionaryRebel

"Hello, ladies, look at your alliance, now back to europa, now back at your aa, now back to me. Sadly, Die Linke isn’t Europa, but if they stopped watching libcons run their mouths and switched to Europa, they could roll them with me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on an ODAP with the aa your aa could be like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an oyster with three aid drops for that thing you love. Look again, the aid slots are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your alliance smells like Europa and not a lady. I’m on a ghost."

Opportunism? Gee, don't say that word here. You might blow Unknown Smurf's efforts to garner moral superiority in this thread every single thread. It's frustrating at first, but as time wears on, it seems sad more than anything. As for MI6, well, I don't think Kaskus itself is adequate cause for any alleged feelings of 'butthurt'. But I can certainly vouch for the ability of some of their members to be rather impossible to deal with. Not quite LN-tier, but still less pleasant than tapdancing barefoot on sandpaper (don't try this, ever).

That's a very revisionist way to view that period and it has to be called-out. That's not a 'golden age', unless you mean a 'golden age of stupidity'. It was ridiculous that people were taking the game seriously. It led a lot of people to do really stupid things. Even today, people continue to do stupid things because they want to cram real-world stuff into a virtual world with no tangible connection to reality other than what players cram into it. This is why people like Tywin are rightfully looked down upon today as kooks, only back then, their behaviour was normative. Activity was higher then because the game and medium were fresh; it was also a time before MMO games had fully evolved, where N@tionstates (lol, word filter censorship) and forum-based nation sim games were biggest. Rush's analysis is more accurate. Rivalries were bigger then, because the community was divided. With so many people involved in the game, it was impossible to know other players too closely. It was ok to force an alliance to disband because you didn't know/like any of the people you were fighting. As time moved on, alliances between AAs changed; people began to have ties and connections all over the place, and community shrinkage means it's now far easier to maintain a wide array of foreign acquaintances than it once was. The continuing rise of warchests and mega-nations has also helped, obviously, but it's not quite as important, from my perspective.

First, LN was around quite some time before you fled there after shitting over Kashmir. Second, viewers? You seem to imply that you're making a spectacle. Which is true. Methrage was the only one of your ilk I was interested in. Given that my intervention encouraged your attention-seeking behaviour and ergo the actions of Kashmir and GOONS, it achieved at least one of my objectives. The great thing is, none of the former members of AE are at war right now. But LN still is. Given your attitude, it's a win-win. Yes, AE had at least 10 inactive people at the time of disbandment, which is why most of the criticism was laughed-off when it happened. The few (2-3 at most) active people that did get caught up in that were assisted and aided where possible, and are now in a far better position than any of LN's nations, growth and development-wise. Disbanding allowed all members of AE to move on with their lives and put a definitive end to the conflict, since LN is incapable of coming up with a peace agreement and sticking to it. It wasn't 'tactics' so much as the easiest way to end the war. We've moved on. Some are in Atlas' gov as we speak (which maybe says something for that AA's lack of experience in key positions, but any legacy is better than none, so I'll take it). I'm being insulted by an abuser of the English language. It's a shame that personal attacks are used to undermine the credibility of honest statements, but that probably says a lot more about LN & Kaskus' need for self-gratification than it does about myself. It also serves as yet another unnecessary reminder of how undignified stonewall is.

Given Kaskus is at war with MI6, not LPH, that was a pretty odd thing to say.

You say you got a real solution? Well, you know, we'd all love to see the plan.

Don't thank them, thank Kaskus. :smug:

And then they'll talk as if they never acted like fools and all those things they said are actually SUPER SERIOUS OMG y u no respect us!???! They've turned poor form into an artform.

They probably just spoke to each other on irc for a minute. Smurf knew it would trigger a war (why else would you have ties to methrage?), but declined to announce it to their own allies. It seems he likes LN more than them, heh. I could've just pointed out that MI6 =/= GOONS (like everyone else) and left it at that, honestly. I know the spelling is hard to mix up.

It's best treated as an informal ODP. Kaskus will only activate it if it means getting into a fight without being rolled. Though admittedly, they seem to be doing a decent job of getting rolled on their own. Weird, huh? It's also not a treaty. By definition, a treaty is an official written agreement, considered binding by the signatories. Doesn't mean everyone needs treaties, but it's worth getting the terminology right. Say what you like about LN, stonewall is the best genuine bad poster around here lately. That last image is a bit of a let-down though. You can do worst better.

Sigrun, as much as individualistic minds are a persecuted minority, I am entirely certain that large chunk of the problems you face are self-inflicted. Oni, my suggestion to you right now as far as the OWF is concerned, is to lurk a little more. Spend some time talking to fellow alliance members, and if you want a broader perspective, there are also plenty of diplomats around the GOON forums and irc channel/s. Your first month or so of CN should be focused on learning the nation-building side of the game and getting used to the mechanics and nature of CN. You have the potential to be a pretty decent player/poster, just don't make one of the classic blunders of new members and post lots of stuff in-character while you're still green. Everything you say/do gives an impression of you/what you are. Discuss your posts so far with your alliance-mates and mentors and they should help you move in the right direction. They should also be able to answer all of the questions you've raised here thus far.

Your actions are definitely gaining plenty of attention and since you're enjoying being rolled by GOONS, you may as well bait even greater curbstomping, I guess. Please spam open chambers with pixellated images more. I'm a little annoyed that they aren't distorted enough. Apply more jpeg compression this instant!

It is probably worth noting that Kaskus - insofar as official announcements are concerned, doesn't actually have a protectorate treaty with LN. Protection afforded has been vis a vis TIF's flimsy ODP. Of course, US may have made verbal agreements as well, but given there's no photostatic proof of an actual agreement he's more or less free to watch them burn. Such decisions are probably better considered by Kaskus' other allies, who remain content to be tied to an alliance with leadership that intentionally places their security at risk. I highly doubt that they've been fully consulted over the Kaskus-methrage situation, at least. But hey, fun is fun, right?

I wonder if Smurf would be as vocal had Europa been in an agreement with someone outside of GOONS. Yes, we know you automatically don't like anyone that associates with groups/people you don't like ad will use every opportunity to try and undermine them in public. This is a classic example of !@#$%* CN politics and it doesn't reflect well on you as an alleged MoFA.

I've casually played King's Indian openings, alongside Benko's and Larsen's. I don't have the time/skill to focus on highly developed opening theory, so I deliberately focus on flexible strategies. Younger players seem to have a harder time defending against flanchetto bishops, which isn't surprising since most people are taught open game tactics first at a beginner level. I personally make too many mid-game blunders to fully exploit this approach, but it's fun to play, especially against people unprepared to face it. Best played conservatively, imo, to avoid overplaying and let opponents stretch themselves in the middle.

You miss something, Zog. There is a need to differentiate between economic development (ie; NS, tech, infra) - which isn't hard for a new nation to break into, and military development which (unless you're raiding/attacking targets of a similar age) is. An opponent a year or two older than you would be able to dish out more damage but (more importantly) would take far less in return. Small things like better defences against CMs, higher aircraft deployment, reduced nuke anarchy time, etc give a wonder-rich nation a large total wartime advantage. You'd be in a situation where you'd need a warchest ten times greater (min) to survive, and there'd be very little return on that investment. War is where the fun is in CN once tech deals and pixel-counting lose their charm. That's the only real incentive for a new nation to keep building up after the first few months in-game, having gotten themselves in range of the bulk of nuke-capable nations. Reforms that make it faster and easier to move from a new nation to one that's competitive militarily would certainly encourage nations under a year old to continue playing. The other part of the puzzle is the increasing deadlock and stagnation that boosts the lag time between 'global wars', but there's not much that can be done about that as far as mechanics is concerned.

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.

Old player complains about changes that don't affect his ability to keep playing the game, insists that everything stay absolutely the same so that he can keep on pressing buttons once a day without worrying about the world falling apart around him. On one hand, there is only so much turd polishing you can do before you realise it's a waste of time. As an overwhelmingly outdated niche game, cybernations can't do that much to rejuvenate itself without a complete redesign & recoding. On the other, there's plenty of small things that would encourage players to return, or even encourage new members to keep playing. Just a few changes would make a significant difference, even if it only delays the inevitable community death. I brought up a suggestion or two related to this recently, which seemed to receive a positive overall reception, so I'm glad there are people still talking about reform . Personally, changes specifically to wonder development intervals might be a bit too late to bring me back from self-imposed inactivation, but it would have made a big difference 16 or so months ago when I started. Closing the wonder gap is a lot harder within a micro when you don't have free aid to rely upon. If I'm a returning player that wants to just hang with a few buds, I don't want to be forced to join up with an AA I don't to just so I can reduce the length of time spent catching up on wonders from 18 months to 12. I hate it when a game like this dictates playing style by convention and unfortunately, it's yet another thing that discourages diversity within the community. Wonder build lag-time is one of the nails in CN's coffin. Doesn't mean the other flaws of CN disappear if it's fixed, but any effort to decrease time from founding to parity is a step in the right direction as far as longevity is concerned.

You know, this could actually be a great opportunity for those anti-DBDC naysayers to just jump out of the woodwork and shift the status quo but as beautiful as that would be to watch, it's never going to happen.

Yes and no, from what I recall. INT's ties to GATO and ODN go back to CPCN (and in GATO's case, beyond to ICP or such), so C&G was always going to look like an attractive option. Back when stronger alliances absolutely HAD to join a bloc to feel good about themselves. Movements away from C&G were somewhat unnatural at first, but were assisted by changes in government and leadership, then further accelerated by the progression of beatdowns that highlighted how bloc membership wasn't adequate guarantee of safety. It's kinda sad that INT's morphed back almost into CPCN (status, not allies-wise).

I wasn't sure why DoorNail/TIF was associating itself with LN before, but that seems painfully apparently now. Cringe-worthy.

It's not too late to make friends and roll IRON together. Heh, who am I kidding? Have fun grandstanding, Weasley.

The truth. It hurts.

What do you mean 'we', Paleface?

[98] (+0) Nordreich : 20.99 --> 21.00 {30} (-1) The Sandstorm Confederacy : 7.99 --> 7.96 clearly