Londo Mollari

And for glory!

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Consider Camelot We're at 18 members atm, 122k NS, aqua team. I know one member IRL, 3 of the other members know each other IRL, same goes for 2 of the others. We are a close knit and friendly group, and we are definitely looking for active members. We have government positions open at all levels, but you don't need one to do stuff - ofc. We are a protectorate of the Mushroom Kingdom. We have no other treaties at the moment, but we are friends with quite a few aqua alliances and a few others. Our friendships are based on genuine friendship, however, and not treaty hunting. And we will always remain that way. #camelot on coldfront camelot.ipbfree.com

Friendship --- Prosperity --- Opportunity Camelot. Join today.

Looks like there is a lot of GGA love for ya. Old friends can't be too bad. ;-) However, if you want to come talk with us at Camelot, we are definitely looking for active members, and we have positions open at all levels of government. We are an aqua alliance, but no member is required to switch colors until placement has been found for him in an aqua trade circle. Our leadership is relatively new to CN, but not without experience either. We are small now, but we aren't planning to stay that way. Every alliance is recruiting. I am sure that nearly all would be thrilled to get you. I welcome you to come talk with us in #camelot on coldfront, or on our boards at camelot.ipbfree.com.

up

Just passed 100,000 NS... o/ Camelot. Join us.

Thanks, LJ.

Camelot ----------- New ----- 18 members and 91,000 NS at the moment, founded a couple weeks ago by 6 ex-ASC members. Experienced Gov ------- I was the trades guy and Lightningdelta was the FA guy for the ASC, before it merged into Ragnarok. While in the ASC gov, I created a large interalliance trade cooperative called the CAFE (http://cafe.ipbfree.com), which I continue to run. Opportunity to advance ------- Positions open all the way up to Ruling Council, which is mostly like a Triumvirate the way we do it. Delta is the Magician, I am the King - but these are equal in rank. Safety ------ We are a protectorate of the Mushroom Kingdom. Come talk to us on #camelot or on our forum at http://camelot.ipbfree.com/... (the forum works better for making an initial contact (everybody has a different schedule ), or you can talk to us on IRC. We are looking for experienced and competent gov who share our values and goals, so you sound like you might be a good fit for us.

o/

Massive tech deal/trade circle programs available for new members. Join today.

You know you want to ride with us!

I think the tech system is perfect the way it is, actually. You'd see the more powerful nations treating the smaller and younger nations a lot worse if the smaller and younger nations didn't have a precious and scarce commodity that everyone wanted. That would cause new players not to stay very long. No. Why is everyone tossing out so many damn suggestions, now? The game works fine the way it is. >_<

What about just giving nukes a larger upkeep cost instead of making them negatively effect environment? It does cost a lot to maintain them... the components are only good for so long. I don't see anyone emigrating from the U.S. because we have nukes, and I haven't heard of anyone being killed by them. I think most Americans are happy that we have nuclear arms, actually. Probably is the same in every nuclear-armed nation. *Londo Mollari scratches his head.

The -2% population per border wall still exists. Having to use border walls as a crutch to fix the environment will work, yes, but it will also cost you that -2% population every time. Nor can you simply trash them to fight a war to bring your population back up, for then you take the environment penalty and lose nearly as much population. Sure, you can use border walls to fix the issue, more or less... but it's not the best solutoin. The optimal solution as I see it is to get water in trade, not to trade for coal or oil, and only to trade for uranium if you want nukes badly enough to pay the economic costs associated with them.

Should be in: 'Edit your profile info'. Up to 15 now... we're growing fast.

Slim.... there's a place for you in Camelot if you're interested. Our MoFA position is open. We have a really good MOIA (MoR, sorta), but you could help out with recruitment too if you wanted. Lots of positions open, and I know you are good with FA. :-) http://camelot.ipbfree.com/ #camelot on Coldfront

I make a TON of trade circles at the CAFE. I suspect most everyone in aqua knows about this, but you may not. Successful 4BR circles are going to be much, much harder to make and keep together now. The reason for this is that making them before relied on getting together a guy with iron and silver, aluminum and wine, marble and gold... etc. That won't work now. Players with a construction resource and an income booster will just look for circles where they can contribute one construction resource and the income booster. Quite a few of them will find spots too, now that coal and uranium are newly poisonous. I consider the circle type effectively dead. The only thing to do is lose construction, keep iron and lumber, and get water and cattle. Then you'll have an income circle, but you'll always have to temp trade to buy infra.. which will suck bad for the smaller nations.

I just realized that rubber is comparatively a much better resource now, actually. People used to make 3BR circles with coal for fast growth... since coal is poisonous now that role will shift to rubber with its -3% infra cost and -10% land cost. So my personal situation has actually improved, since a 3BR with rubber is eminently viable now, because of the reduced infra and land costs, where it was not before. My aluminum and rubber will now fit naturally into one of those. Still, a lot of nations that I have spent days and days of careful work putting into trade circles are now in trouble... and certainly most players with oil, coal, uranium, furs, and silver are now in a worse situation than before.

14 Members now... we are growing. Also, TK... you don't have a forum AA... ya might want to change it to Camelot. ;-)

It would be interesting if each nation had to buy and sell finite quantities of resources, instead of what we have now. Say you had such and such natural resources, and you could produce so much based on your infra.... resources like furs would be easier to produce more of per infra starting out, so having furs would be beneficial early in the game, but less so once you got on up there.. but say you also had pigs, or iron... you could devote all your infra to producing pigs, or iron. So no one would be screwed over by having a bad resource combination that didn't fit in anywhere. There would be a market where each nation would be able to buy and sell resources to others... just like in RL.

Yes... coal, oil, rubber, furs, silver, and uranium all need to be boosted. And people need to take these environment penalties if they have coal, oil, and/or uranium native. It's almost not fair for them not to, anymore. I think it makes sense for coal and oil to give large income bonuses, or large infra upkeep reductions. Same with rubber. - energy economy anyone? Transportation? Give coal and oil a +6 income bonus, each, in addition to what they already have. Or give them -5% infra upkeep apiece. But make them better, sure. Rubber could stand an upgrade too. Furs and Silver can be fixed by making affluent population better. Make affluent population give +5% population and +12 income, or whatever numbers balance it out the best. And uranium can be fixed by making nukes hurt more, and by making it a requirement to keep your nukes reliable, or to keep them at all. I have made suggestions that were well-liked to this effect in the current thread on nuclear weapons in the suggestion box.

He doesn't need stable trades... all he has to do is get a temp every 19 days. So the only thing that matters is that he and others (who are rich/well connected) with coal/oil/uranium as native resources will not take any sort of penalty when they collect. Yes, the resource combinations that you name are all extremely, extremely weak. You are glossing over my point, and my point is that game balance has been damaged by this update. Of the decent tradesets, the best one (3BR) has stayed the same, while all the others have gotten weaker. There is a much bigger gap now between those who can fit into a 3BR and those who cannot. Relative to everyone else, this update benefits Syz in a very tangible way, as I have explained. I would not claim that he did this solely to benefit himself relative to everyone else, but that effect is had. There is a conflict of interest here due to the particulars of the situation, as I have explained. Anyone who understands the CN trade system can see that in a flash. And I am sure Syz was very aware of what would happen. A game balance issue has been created that could be fixed by strengthening the weak resources, and by making people take penalties for what they have native, IMO. Heh. He has certainly created a great deal more work for me, in the trading arena. I will not complain about this update, provided that there are other updates that come on its heels that resolve the game balance issues it has created. Saying "oh, some resource combinations have always been bad" does not justify making a whole bunch more of them just as bad, and giving a select set of players an even greater advantage. That is specious, good sir.

I do not like this update, at all. One of the things I have been doing since I got here is making trade circles for people. I run an aqua interalliance trade cooperative called CAFE, which has over 200 registered members and more names that have been brought there by aqua alliance leaders. I and a few others have been placing people in trade circles. http://cafe.ipbfree.com/index.php It was awfully hard to get in a trade circle if you had [aluminum + furs], or [iron + silver] or something like that - before affluent population was updated. After it was updated, the 4BR circle became a viable option. I was able to put a lot of aqua players in trade circles who had trouble finding stable trades on their own. This update weakens any trade circle that can't get water, or that has a resource with an environment penalty. By comparison, the vaunted 3BR - Beer, Construction, and Fast Food with Fish and ____ is made even stronger. It was the best circle before for the vast majority of people, and now it is even better. The 4BR circle, or Construction, Steel, Affluent Population, and Fine Jewelry + Wheat, has been made worse, since it has coal and suffers from a lack of water. There was a penalty before. It has grown substantially. I happen to have an identical 12-resource profile to Syz. The difference is, his coal and oil are native. He is being differentially affected because he has 2 resources that carry huge environmental penalties, but he does not suffer from them when he collects. Nor is it a problem if he loses his trades, for he can always pay for temp trades easily or just order his alliance to temp trade with him. There is a huge conflict of interest here, because this update personally benefits him in comparison to everyone else. New nations with coal+oil will not be so fortunate, for they will be unable to pay for temp trades, and even less able to convince others to trade with them long term. This update dramatically weakens: furs, silver, rubber, coal, oil, and uranium. They were already weak resources before, they are now all even weaker. It strengthens lead, and all of the 3 bonus resource circle resources. It damages game balance, disrupts carefully built trading arrangements, and personally benefits Syz because he doesn't take the penalty for collecting while having oil and coal, since they are native resources. I recognize that many individuals have made efforts to improve gameplay and the CN experience. I am one of them, through CAFE. But let it not be said that Syz is a disinterested individual here! There is a clear conflict of interest, and I feel that game balance has been seriously damaged. In my mind, the way to make up for it is to give the resources that I said were weakened better bonuses, and to make sure that people take the penalty for environmentally harmful resources even if they have them native.