CivWiki Monday Newsletter for February 6, 2023
Good morning and happy Monday from freezing New England!
This past weekend it was quite below freezing where I am, with a biting low temperature of -3F/-20C with a howling 20+mph windchill so it’s nice to sit back, relax and make a newsletter. It wasn’t actually that nice though. Honestly, it’s biting cold out there, so bundle up and stay safe this winter!
I’m sure there was already good incentive to stay inside instead of freezing outside, because things are already quite heating up in game!
Ready for the news?
Featured
Featured Image
This week’s featured image is a gate along Griffin’s road network; they’ve built out a large road network stretching from Amboise and Adria down to Pavia. There are several landmarks like these along the road network built to this level of perfection, it’s really nice and very evocative of the rest of their build style. I always love seeing niche infrastructure projects like this and I’m looking forward to more across the server!
Featured Article
Orion was a country on Civcraft 2.0 focused on a democratic and capitalist system of government, with striking similarities to the United States government. The country was established at the start of the world in the middle of the northwest quadrant, and quickly became known as the most populous country on the server. Due to its easy access and low barriers to entry (which included a free plot for newfriends), the country saw several conflicts throughout its lifespan, including the raids from the Bloodcrew, Cuban Revolution, an secession crisis from Sennisten, one of the country’s borough.
Although the country had an anarchic build system, the country had several areas of cultural significance. The country had several notable builds, including the capitol (pictured), a grand train station connecting the CIC, and the Grand Olympic Stadium, playing host to the first known Olympics held on Civ servers, and inspiring future Olympics on CivClassic. Additionally, Cuban leader Farley50 lent his name to today’s Farley War, a term known for either a roleplay war between two parties or an event where players use weaker materials for fighting. Today, some of Orion’s players make up today’s Jorvik. (Full article…)
This week’s featured picture is the Orion capitol, in its capital. Finally, the Featured Articles list no longer a list that Farley50 is not on.
Current Events
The Queen Banyough Statue in Lambat, in the Katipan district.
Estalia Drama
- Estalia embarked on a “Gong Night” this past weekend, a reference to when they (at the time, jokingly) removed the Gong at the Gensokyo Shrine/Train Station a couple months ago.
- Headlining that night was removing Gensokyo gongs a second time, as retaliation for Gensokyo lying and stealing several stacks of build materials during their 0,0 builds.
- Red_Steel was also attacked by Estalians last night in Danzilona, and was banned from the Estalia discord after being told to turn themselves in for a reduced sentence.
- Estalians also griefed several areas in Danzilona, and said that Red_Steel had been “harassing” Shapha, and requested she to be pearled for two weeks.
- Danzilona is currently in negotiations with Estalia for appropriate sentencing, with several territories & players expressing distaste for the attacks.
- Yodabird was also attacked in Nara by thejkh earlier that night. Estalia clarified that “Yodabird was not meant to be attacked”, and was only attacked after those in VC joked about his Interpol neutral colors. Estalian leader S4NTA expressed apologies to Yodabird.
- Meanwhile, Lysika_Lantariel posted an “Active Nations” map that hoped to accurately portray which nations are active and see the amount of land being deprived by newfriends
- However, no one person actually knows the full extent of all players, so it’s really funny looking at all the other “active” nations malding and coping
Pettier Drama (Yes, There’s More)
Please note some links in below block are NSFW. I know a lot of you readers read this on your phone on the way to work or whatever, so just keep an eye out.
- Cordoba accused Gang Shi members Gwua and UB40 for continued aggression against Cordoba for the past two months.
- Although not reported in the news for the past month*, the country has been hit with raids from Gang Shi and Kallos since December, from raids on their vault to raiding Cordoban farms
- Tensions came to a head after Cordobans discovered attempts to place TNT to kill Cordobans as well as removing all the Cordoban horses. In the ensuing fighting, Gwua was killed, and in response, much of Gang Shi came down and pearled four Cordoban citizens.
- Despite attempted peace talks, engagement continued with a Cordoban pearled Sunday evening.
- This came as a result of a few Cordobans griefing their nether portal, with Gang Shi fighters pearling two and killing one.
- This quickly grew into a large engagement from Cordoban defense forces fighting SEC and Gang Shi affiliated attackers.
- Part of the reason was that Chosentwicelol, a wanted criminal in Icenia, was present during the attacks and was seen aiding Cordoba, which prompted SEC support.
- Late that evening (are you serious, Sunday night?!) Gang Shi posted their response to the above situation:
- While they had been meming in prior engagements before this weekends’ drama, the country’s eventual perspective was that Cordoba was negotiating in bad faith — Gang Shi claimed had been the ones to approach for peace talks.
- They cited several incidents that Cordoba attacked after promising peace attacks on Friday.
- Finally, they claim that the country has been insensitive, bringing up the group’s history as well as the country’s recent actions being seen as mockery instead of memery. They also note their previous engagement with Blockchainistan, a similarly insensitive and inappropriate country on Civ.
Motivations on both sides are quite murky, with Cordobans playing the innocent card while demanding reparations for the attacks in poor faith, and Gang Shi accusing the country (NSFW) of being terrible people and insensitive. (NSFW). However, there have been general sentiments, especially among Alenarith citizens, that Cordoba is not as savory as many people think.
A ray of sunshine runs through the fields of the Bedford Commons in Pavia.
More CivMC Drama (it’s mostly not drama)
- PhysicsGamer was pearled by former Temporal citizens this past week.
- After declaring war and attempted coup on Valyria a few weeks ago, an attempted attack in the territory resulted in Jamiemie pearling him.
- The pearl is currently stored in the Pavian vault along with Kiwigamer, with sentencing currently pending.
- Icenia posted a summary about their view of the situation, and supported the effort of Temporal citizens to coup the territory.
- Pavia has expressed remorse earlier this week over their end of the situation, saying they regret having aided PhysicsGamer in their protection during the Arnen-TI conflict.
- Valyria is currently expected to make a post regarding the situation.
- Lambat completed their Civil War earlier this week, capped off with President Kaprediem pearling Queen Banyough along with Queen Banyough pearling President Kaprediem.
- The country has stabilized into the republic it had been before, with Kaprediem retaining presidency.
- Icenia completed its February elections, with most incumbent senators receiving another term alongside newcomers awart1881 and Anvil. Additionally, newsletter contributor and CivWiki editor Gjum has been elected as speaker of the senate!
- The Commonwealth, Reggio Argeddina, and Iopa, a Molokan Colony, formed the League of Imperial Powers, committing to mutual defense and combined economic affairs.
- ComradeSankara has been elected as the Imperial Federation’s new Chancellor, the first following King_Cupar’s resignation as king.
- The election was a four-way race, with a live debate on the server occurring Tuesday night.
- Campaign visits also included Halland, a brand new town in the country.
- Khione had a “Don’t Look Up”-type of situation where an impending meteor crashed into the territory, with debris spilling all over; it currently is in a cleanup process. Crossposted from the Boar News Network.
- Mount Augusta has begun construction of their Overground Rail Station/Newfriend Center/Mall
- Iria is introducing new history months, celebrating past works; this February they are celebrating their past friendship with Fellowship from Civcraft 2.0
- Griffin has built a brand new road network. Check it out!
- The Pavian Institute has suspended all work, blaming the government for its absence of information relay.
- There are several building updates in the Desk of Domi that I can’t summarize neatly here…
- Pavia has also announced a photo competition, awarding a stack of diamonds to the best photographer of Pavia.
- Highroll has issued an apology to both Pavia and Aetherix following several events regarding his pearling last month.
- However, upon release ShadySauce and others reported he dived into the Doom City vault, which was found to be really ironic
Around the Civ Community
- CivVie has relaunched using a brand new hosting service and an ad campaign. More information about those in their discord.
- CivRev 3.0’s beta launched this past weekend. Join their discord here.
- It’s a 1:500 scale map of the world; with the map projected to carry out to continue into the live version in a few months.
- At the time of writing, not much has happened on the server so far, besides several claims for very specific locations on the server.
- Please note that to join the server, you need to submit a request to make already vouched people to invite you onto the server.
- Owain requests people to submit a bug or abuse report if found.
- CivRev also includes SimpleVoiceChat, to make nearby communication much easier and seamless.
- More specific information and mechanic changes on the server can be seen here.
The Fun Stuff
One of the Priderock Colossuses, along the sea near Pridelands.
Builds
- Not a build but since when did wjkroeker have shaders
- Even the places with “no build theme” still look amazing in Pavia, the above picture from the Bedford Commons.
- Of course, city wall towers in Pavia that have been recently built
- I think this is a great way to incorporate cool landscaping techniques, seen here in CivRev
- There’s quite a few renders from Griffin this time, so just going to link the whole message just to show that it’s really stupid good
- I’m not discounting Venne from the list as they’ve got amazing builds there too
- Danzilona may forget that New Swisston exists but it does look cool with its pastel colored row houses
- Pridelands has been in the process of constructing four giant colossuses (colosses?) in the nearby sea, they’re honestly really well made and it’s going to be a great sight to see
- And of course, I cannot forget Queen Banyough
Multimedia Projects
- I’m going to applaud TolypeVelleda for an amazing advertisement poster, even if he was forced to make it by HR for a chill stream (it was a good stream)
- Technically not a highlight but Transport Union is doing a great job; Can you at least make it more readable with like white on red or something, or thicker lines? thanks
- Huge effort to make this insane crazy rail map on map.civmc.tk by VilyanZ, he’s been chipping away at it for a few weeks, so it’s great to see it’s finally done
- BritishWanderer and Cissonius did what I always fail to do: be a war journalist
- As an average map appreciator, I always love a pastel colored road map, including this one from Griffin
- OreStraya has been doing a few YouTube shorts this past week that raises awareness of the server; although it’s the usual Minecraft TikTok clickbaity stuff, they are very well made.
Memes
- I write news
- You know that everyone’s basically going to forget about the weather balloon as a meme at the end of year
- ”Balloon shot down over South Estalia”
- Insert another generic balloon meme here
- I think Physics does actually embody Rico from the Penguins of Madagascar
- What is this meme even supposed to say about PhysicsGamer, like seriously
- This is the equivalent of singing “Happy Birthday” to ChrisChrispie out of tune
- There aren’t that many builds on CivRev yet, but this one from Alzuboxxer just made me laugh for like no reason at all
- Ok so when are we going to count microseconds in Civ
- You realize this Family Guy meme could’ve just been a slander meme and been way better
- Ah yes, my favorite anime
- I don’t think it’s been 9 wjeeks for the wjeekly update, has it? Or am I just experiencing newsletter time dilation
- So now it’s not Better Call Saul but actually adult animated cartoons now? This joke is getting overplayed and starting to be unfunny
- Zolo got pearled by SOGGYHOBO on Friday, but the real funny part about this meme is this comment
- Overused Shrek meme
- Highroll attempted to apply to Butternut, this is the Civ equivalent of uploading yourself on Pornhub eating cereal
- The problem is that everyone’s going to get a bingo every time there’s a build night
Advertisements
Whoops, there’s no ads this week! Nobody contacted me for a slot. I guess everyone was too occupried with the war. Please contact me at @specificlanguage#2891 if you’re looking to advertise in the newsletter.
The only update economically is that the price of iron/diamond is mostly staying relatively stable, with prices at CivMarket hovering around 14i/d.
Metagame Highlights
- Yodel is hosting gartic phone games, so if you’re looking for funny times, that’s here too I guess.
- So this is another bullshit reputation thread but I can put my own newsletter on here, so that’s cool I guess, I do find it funny that I personally cannot get upvotes but the newsletter does lmao
- If anybody wants to start a Roast thread this week, this would be a great time to do so! If you don’t, I will!
- wjkroeker is still really nice and reminds you that the Transport Union is always there to help when pearled
Statuesque Cry for Help
A fight between SEC/Gang Shi forces against Cordoban defense forces, as a result of the second fight Sunday evening, taken by Cissonius and BritishWanderer.
Thanks for reading the newsletter this week, I’m sure you’ve finished like 3 or 4 buckets of popcorn at this point so I hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks to checks Discord DMs… Doommad, Red_Steel, Zolo, Yodabird, Mickale, Topher3001, Gjum, BritishWanderer, Metriximor, Kaprediem, Gamertime, Gwua, and JuniorTide for providing information for this weeks newsletter.
If you’re looking to get involved or put your stuff in, few ways that you can support the newsletter:
- Submit a featured article, it’s easier than you think and you get your article showed up everywhere!
- Writing an opinion/op-ed piece in the newsletter — I’m accepting submissions for this month’s featured writing if you want to talk about any general aspect of Civ.
- Placing an advertisement in the newsletter (please see this post for more details)
- Supporting me on Ko-Fi, although this gives quite literally no benefits whatsoever except a shoutout
Anyway, thanks for all the support this week, and as always…