Sarkin

Love a treaty that begins with a quotation.

Many people are saying it'd be pretty cowardly if he didn't!

Congratulations to you both!

That's exciting, welcome back to the world! Good luck!

I'm talking specifically about the scenario that was raised earlier of folks choosing to rogue at the lowest possible NS level with the help of the log-in bonus. These criticisms don't apply to roguing beyond that hypothetical. Obviously if you're roguing at a non-microscopic NS, then you'll have the choice of more entertaining opponents and can reap meaningful casualties if that's your goal. I'm assuming you didn't rogue at <3k NS for that year, or at least not by choice. Basically, all I'm saying is "folks looking for a fight usually don't go to their local hospital's maternity ward to beat up infants." I think the log-in bonus was a positive change to the world's mechanics, and I would hate to see it get dropped out of concern over hypothetical hypergriefers. I don't think this is a particularly controversial position to hold. Anyway, since this isn't what UnitedBishop (or anyone else to my knowledge) has actually done in practice, I'll leave it there.

Oh, that isn't what I'm saying; I don't think the world is too far gone for new tactics. I was talking about it from an individual rogue perspective before, but moving to an alliance perspective: I still think it's a flawed tactic on multiple levels and that we won't see any meaningful alliance intentionally turn itself into a bunch of 1k nuke turrets even though many of them technically could. It's bad for the world's long-term health since it forcibly narrows your target selection to be mostly new players, not to mention that those wars would also become boring enough to cause attrition among your own ranks over time. Even as a temporary negotiating tactic, it's lame since the damage done is so cheap to repair and your warchests would stagnate while your enemy's warchests continue to grow. I'm not a big fan of pursuing any tactic where your opponent gains a greater material advantage the longer you pursue it. People do things because they think it makes sense for them to do said thing, right? I'm sure it's possible for individuals to grow embittered enough to feel that griefing new players is the best way for them to spend their time, but I don't foresee entire alliances making the same choice unless it's a temporary maneuver (which could work but carries the drawbacks listed above) or they're planning to leave the world permanently.

It's true that it's easy to do, but I think the better question to consider is: what would a person actually accomplish by doing that? By intentionally staying tiny (assuming they have the resources to do otherwise), they're limiting their targets to other nations in that range. The vast majority of those in range will be newer nations. so most of the time they would just be knocking around new players without the means to defend themselves. If they're roguing due to boredom with peace, it's a pretty cruel way to go about it, and it probably wouldn't even be particularly entertaining given that their opponents wouldn't be capable for fighting back in any meaningful way. If they're roguing for casualties, they'll barely get any at that size. If they're roguing due to a grudge, their grudge is probably not with those newer players. If they're roguing to try to be a nuisance, the damage they do at that size can be fixed with an aid package or two (unless the event is discouraging enough to the new player to drive them from the game entirely, but that would be a loss for the whole community given the state of the playerbase). As far as I can tell, pretty much all online games of a sufficient size have a contingent of griefers, so they must get something out of it. Probably not anything that enriches the soul, though. I imagine that's why we haven't seen nations embrace this approach despite it becoming mechanically viable thanks to the log-in bonus.

DT spent years as a quiet retirement home. When we started shaking off those cobwebs in 2021, CLAWS was fortunately one of the first alliances we encountered. It didn't take long for us to feel a kinship with them, and that feeling has only grown stronger over time as we found opportunities to collaborate in economics, war, and diplomacy. This treaty is long overdue, and we're proud to be your partners.

Shout-out to Serb and Solo for their work to grow the alliance! But, even more importantly: what does this mean for the future of Argent relevancy?

The 3 unread messages notification in the image is cruel. Inbox zero, folks!

that's too many Brits ! !

Rest in peace, Invicta.

Nice, always fun to see folks enjoying themselves in CN. Also, good luck to you on the health journey! I know how you feel; hell, I procrastinated on that for half a decade longer than I should've. You've still got time!

Can't pin down Bundy! Congrats to The Wolves and Pacifica.

Congrats to you both! Good treaty format too.

Hell yeah to GLoF in the top five for average casualties per member; those freemasons are metal as hell.

It's kind of fun to sort alliances by the various metrics. Tech, for instance, which is DT's god: Total members is fun too. Shout-out to The Legion for keeping their member count nearly stable from June 2022 (102 to 96), while FTW dropped 53 and CLAWS dropped 19. This just makes me wish that there was a column for casualties. How cool would that be? Especially if there were an avg casualties per member column too.

Congratulations on your retirement, and good luck to Velocity. I've heard that those who spend a meaningful amount of time serving in government these days get bonus points toward sainthood, so that's something to look forward to!

I love a good Adventure Crime! Congrats to our blocmates in VE and friends in GATO!

Yeah, this makes sense. It's always exciting to see a new alliance these days, best of luck to y'all!

Ooh, love a seasonal treaty text. Nice.

Shout out to y'all for some real scorched-earth combat. Just look at the state of these alliances! Brutal. This is a great peace agreement, by the way: - Nice prose from Alex and Lyanna - Clear peace terms - Cool to include the damage stats - A Jason sig This was kind of a perfect war. Pretty even (compared to most wars), with The Wolves getting to indulge in some sustained combat and the commies getting to settle a grudge. It's impressive that The Wolves were able to keep up with damage dealt despite disadvantages. Their ability to punch above their weight remains remarkable and a testament to Bundy's warriors-only mentality to building an alliance. Anyway, good luck to everyone in their rebuilding. The worst thing that can happen after a war these days is for people to use the damage as an excuse to head out the door. Don't! No matter how much damage your nation took, you can bounce back.

Evidently, yeah.

Congratulations to GATO and PGS for giving them a nice, hard smack on the nose and getting this wrapped up neatly.

Congratulations on hitting a week, and also congratulations on not driving yourselves crazy trying to maintain it indefinitely.