CivWiki Monday Newsletter for February 27, 2023
Good morning and happy Monday from New England!
Another freezing Saturday for me means another weekend of staying in my room writing about 12-year olds on discord showing how much they ruined the community. From the CivReign launch to the massive implosion on CivMC, there’s plenty to talk about.
Quite an eventful weekend for everyone and lots to do around the Civ community means I will probably be as busy as ever. Maybe you should be expecting 20+ minute newsletters in the future? With an exponential amount of content it might be a bit overwhelming for readers.
For those viewing the newsletter on computers, you may also notice that the newsletter seems a bit wider, and that’s just to accommodate a larger space on your screen — it’s less New York Times-y and just fits a little more content in less space. It’s kind of needed with all of the content going forward so you’re not doomscrolling too much.
Alright, are you all ready for a really long newsletter?
Featured
Featured Image
This week’s featured picture is of Venne in the very south of Alenarith. While it’s abandoned now, it’s set to be the site of the boat race for Nara’s upcoming Olympics, with great architecture and a beautiful town square and ship, it still holds up to this day despite dwindling activity from the region. Sorry that it’s not a CivReign picture yet, they’re all still in povertycraft, but this is at least something a little different than the usual Pavia every two weeks! Great work, and even though it’s no longer in development, looking forward to what Venne will become.
Featured Article
FRIENDS was an alliance on CivClassic consisting of primarily of Holy Jaded Empire, Columbia, Rhodesia and Vitelia, among others, focused on mutual defense. Created following the failure of the Western Cooperative Union, the alliance mainly acted in opposition to SATO throughout the later half of 2018, creating a cold war-like environment throughout the server. Their competition came about due to alt-raider accusations and continued tensions with Yoahtl.
The alliance came into frequent conflict with SATO on numerous occasions. Throughout the latter months of 2018, SATO and FRIENDS engaged in soft-power warfare over nearby Mount Augusta, following raids from FRIENDS-affiliated fighters. A planned raid on Vitelia’s vault in 2019 forced the country to abandon the stronghold, with Mir and SATO forces taking the vault days later. A vault hole dug by Southshire was also griefed by Rhodesian raiders, resulting in international backlash and a resulting pearling of Capri. Following this incident, most FRIENDS countries pivoted to create the NATO alliance, lasting through the Infinity War.
This week’s featured article picture is a protest outside the Hjaltland Industries shop in Mount Augusta during the SATO-FRIENDS Cold War.
CivReign News
Laurentia’s capital on their build server, as they were planning for much of the week!
Thank god this isn’t a dead section, so CivReign people won’t downvote me!
Uncooperative Conditions
As everyone knows, the road to CivReign’s release was not quite as smooth as was advertised. Following an initial late January release date, the launch was delayed nearly a full month to February 17 with several delays eventually setting it back to the following Sunday, then to Monday, the 20th.
- Despite numerous boxes being checked (their expression not mine), they eventually delayed the server yet again to Friday, February 24th. Cortwade pinned the issues on “ItemsAdder”, one of the newer plugins that caused cascading errors.
- This caused more painful disappointment from the playerbase which means I believe that I have to personally execute Cortwade and have to go to collect a winning bet from Topher
- Despite this, the server admins kept working throughout the week with RektTangle making continuous adjustments to the PvP system
- Anyway, the server’s new launch date on Friday was at 3pm, which was changed midweek to 5pm eastern for staffing reasons.
- However in typical Civ fashion, the server still did not launch on time, due to unforeseen circumstances but finally launched at around 5:50pm Eastern time.
- Several updates throughout the day occurred, the most egregious of which was a bug in Energy, in a system very similar to CivRealms that decreased energy if you died too much.
It Has Never Been More…Alive?
- However, server performance was suffering, with players regularly seeing TPS (Ticks per Second) values of less than 10.
- CivReign admins did a couple restarts throughout the night to remedy certain issues, the most egregious of which was the server’s self-hosted custom resource pack which was causing considerable lag; however this was remedied by kindly asking people to download the texture pack themselves.
- The mechanics so far has been similar to Realms large continents and oceans, slow, regional progression and varied landscapes. A few features were missing at launch, notably boats which were vital to connecting up with players.
- Unfortunately, it’s not even a joke where people need to mine to actually get any worthwhile materials, with many searching for an aqua-nether portal to be able to head to the mining dimension. Realistic Biomes build times are horrendous, taking IRL days to grow even a single crop of wheat or an IRL week to grow a tree.
- They have attempted to make steps to make “growing trees tolerable” by speeding up tree growth in the current summer season however it’s a noticeable problem that makes people push towards removal of the natural landscape.
- Updates continued throughout the weekend, with fossil revamps, the aqua nether, and resource pack updates being enabled through the late hours on Saturday as well as a large update on Sunday to ease gameplay in this early stage of the game.
- One thing I can at least commend the admins for is the moderation capabilities, with people being banned for killing while RandomSpawn was broken to gain bastions easily as well as crackdowns on potential exploitation such as Highroll miraculously finding an Aqua Nether portal by digging straight down with no indicator.
- The main complaint is the slow start, with tin being relatively rare and hard to find and many being turned off by the longer “povertycraft”-like progression on the server so far. Admins have stated however, that it’s intended for relatively slower progression on the server compared to mainline servers.
This is one of the starts of all time for a server that a week ago was barely ready to come out the door, so only time will tell whether it was worth the wait.
CivMC News
Warmia’s Zodiak Tavern, a cozy locale located in the heart of their territory.
Of course the CivReign launch was noisy but CivMC put up quite a ruckus this week too, don’t get me wrong…
The Color Purple
Following the Elysian Pact’s victory in [the not-really-a-war Purple War two weeks ago], Monday saw SPQR representative Antonius_Marcus post their sentencing and landclaim swaps. This ruffled quite a few feathers.
- They first announced K0mmi, DockerImage, dredd_kiji, Afflicted, and ColdBoy would serve between 3 to 12 weeks of pearl time; while lenient compared to previous server-affecting wars in prior years, it is the longest by Estalia so far.
- They also announced that some of Kallos would be held under Estalia under the “Mandate of Erimos”, and a section of Kallosian territory would be spun off into a new nation called Proxima, owned by SandFalls and a successor to the CCCP back in CivClassic.
- They additionally clarified that the EP would continue ongoing demilitarization efforts in Kallos city and would keep both the Rhode Island vault and the Kallos vault to prevent any further offensive efforts.
- However, much of Kallos such as Warmia, Arnen City and Gazebo would have their independence recognized and be spun off into their own respective territories.
Reception among non-Elysian Pact nations have been generally negative. Although the above conditions were generally fine, many were displeased with the aggressive actions that resulted in the above.
- A post from TolypeVelleda came later on that day as a rebuttal to the sentencing, arguing that Estalia’s attack on Kallos as a whole was unjustified, and the preemptive move of attacking Kallos was out of fear of former Rhode Island players being active in the country rather than actual motive.
- The post continues to warn people about the oppressive shadow of the EP, as Tolype believes it’s an unsupportive and fearful environment to play in, citing other militaristic tactics such as the pearling of Red_Steel, and Gensokyo getting griefed several weeks ago. It serves as a warning to all nations; as he believes it is further indication that Estalia will continue to rampage the server to enforce their own vision.
- People were generally supportive of this view, with some concerned about Estalia taking over Cordoba’s and now Kallos’ defensive infrastructure, and others outraged about the overblown claims of Kallosian “warmongering”
- The Elysian Pact’s response to the post was also concerning, as they seem indignant on keeping the same state of mind, arguing that they had a right to attack Kallos due to their warmongering and premeditated attack on Estalia.
- I also had nowhere to fit this quote in, but the fact that an EP spokesperson said “[I]ts [sic] unfortunate for all the buildfriends caught up in this - but its not about you.” is the worst Civ take I’ve ever seen in my entire career.
- The replies to that response re-argued the same point, saying that the defensive infrastructure buildup and continued attempts at diplomacy did not warrant a full-scale invasion of the territory.
There’s quite a lot of debate on that post, so I’m not going to attempt to summarize the rest but I’ve hit the main points of the debate at hand. It is completely up to you whether you will get yourself involved in drama or not.
- ChrisChrispie, on the original post was immediately concerned with ex-Estalian (Shadedoom) retaking Columbia, and would not negotiate any new claims without their express permission.
- However, this issue was peacefully negotiated with shadedoom with no ulterior concerns besides future settling on the Kallos continent.
- At least there’s generally one thing everyone can settle on: DockerImage and Dredd_kiji are actual idiots.
The halls under the Great Thrall Clan, kind of fitting for rats travelling underground.
The Color White
Ok, well how about another detour?
- Although Britisher had returned from his hiatus earlier, on Friday he posted an expanded version of his rationale of his reasons for leaving. It’s a long post, but the three main points he’s making are:
- players’ ignorance and sometimes outright disdain for newfriends, notably Bronnakus from Nara
- the current meta of crayon claiming and the refusal to unclaim land to make it available for newfriends
- ”hegemonic power” by the EP and Estalia. The third section has a lot more regarding Rhode Island and Kallos playing a part in their dominance, but you can look at it on the post itself
- The worst part of the post (which he has since deleted) is that he has claimed MrJoCrafter is a sane and reasonable individual which by no means is correct
- The rationale was well received — ChrisChrispie heavily argued for a “third way” that doesn’t support the hegemonic power of the two major military powers, which have been the only guiding force for mainline server politics since early CivClassics.
- The EP’s response, again from Antonius_Marcus, argued that this argument doesn’t hold, and still argues for the EP’s intervention in Kallos. Many were not supportive of this point of view.
Britisher continues to play on CivReign in Laurentia.
Every Other Color on the Map
Have we had enough drama on the server yet? Maybe I should stop summarizing every long post on the subreddit because it just gets worse the more I say…
- After a long period of silence, Nara announced they would go on with Olympic hosting duties, and planned to host the Olympics in two weeks on the weekend of March 10.
- Nara also announced there would be contributions from Danzilona and Venne, with New Swisston hosting several ice-themed events and Venne hosting a boat race event (due to the other countries not having the ability to host it!)
- Several nations have already pinged their citizens to join their country and compete for the gold in the next weekends. Nara will announce the solidified schedule next weekend.
- Nara also integrated their international rail lines into the subway, making it more accessible as they ramp up their infrastructure towards Olympic use.
- Grand Imperium announced several land claim changes, with their eastern claims being transferred to Gang Shi and Yoahtl. At least they’re trying to do something to keep the peace!
- Princess Bow of Winterbourne announced the entry of two Knights of the Order of the Winterbourne, both of whom have considerably contributed to the Civ community. I’m happy to announce that one of them is me!
- The Yodabird/Vedd ticket won Cortesia Del Mar’s election, not to be confused with the Vedd/Yodabird ticket…
- Margaritaville’s MaybeGravy joined the Lambat State Council, making it the second province in the country following Chungia.
- SambonusG was also reelected to the Mayor of L City, with VilyanZ and Magnileve rounding out the council members. Crossposted from the Lambat Post.
- Icenia is currently in the process of electing a brand new council, with the seat number shrinking down to 5 once again.
- PergySkeel was elected as the Commonwealth’s newest Prime Minister, after a close race with reffelruz.
- SPQR is electing a brand new council for March, see their campaigns on their subreddit.
- CivMC definitely did not caused a HiddenOre problem on February 24th, and is instead working on a spawn bug that SoundTech is still puzzled how to solve
- Admins also reclarified their botting & mod policy, taking effect two weeks from now.
- CivMC is also hiring new moderators and administrators, see their discord for more information.
The Fun Stuff
An overhead view of the Pavian Crownlands from the Lucassio Tower, taken by ArtificialDriver.
Builds
A little quieter on the builds front this week, mostly due to planning this week and other information
- One of the only new builds this week, Warmia’s little tavern in their capital is a cozy retreat from all the mess out there
- Plupsnup continues his square designs in his revival of the CCTT on CivReign
- Despite the picture competition being over, there are still people posting pictures on #pavian-pics, such as ArtificialDriver’s various light themed pictures of the country as well as Blatlas’ image of cozy downtown
- The Great Thrall Clan is squeezing all they can out of those acacia blocks they have in the savanna, with underground halls, a rail station and the town itself
- I am legally not allowed to highlight it because it’s not on the server yet but m3ee is working on a museum that’s quite expansive
Multimedia Projects
- The funny rat clan has some great art to accompany their arrival
- Kallos citizens have also made a picture dump to preserve their history, I implore people who have posted screenshots to throw it onto the CivWiki!
- sigh I guess I do have to put the diss track on here now do I
- Cannot give enough credit and praise to the Shiroyama map by Henderwicz, it’s really a fantastic and well-put together map
- Maps are quickly being fleshed out on CivReign, with Laurentia creating a map as well as fredhun’s expansive map of the east
- Least Organized Lambat Post be like (this is a compliment)
- I just like the simple news design of Cortesia’s election results
- They never highlighted it but once again, pastel-colored maps of the Lyrean Sea area from Griffin are my kink
Memes
- Out of nowhere on Tuesday, bgbba made a post pitying Gang Shi’s actions in the past months. It was so good that I didn’t realize that it was a mutual shitpost, which I guess was the goal, I can’t believe I got bamboozled. Apologies to all parties involved for reporting bad info previously!
- The Gang Shi response came as a diss track that didn’t really “diss” anything, at least from the lyrics that he posted in the comments.
- I can’t wait to not build across the entire map!
- When the god damn uh and the stupid eepy come together you uh
- DonFuer released their brand new server trailer which I guess is more so putting a bunch of stock video footage into your video editor
- The fact that the meme is exit 628 means you should have exited a long time ago
- hot raiders near you! looking to pearl some citizens uwu
- The joke is that the covered portion of this post is a bewsie
- binchy dug this map of CivMC from the archives
- At this rate I’d rather just say fuck you to everyone
- So what, we gon make a new UN?
- binchy, have you ever thought that people would know you placed those blocks?
- Otonabee meming is too high level for me
- There is no choice but to mine on CivReign
- There really is no choice but to mine on CivReign
- Haha imagine trying to join CivReign but you suck!
- “is tin real”
Metagame Highlights
- I kid you not mate, he turns CivBalls into CivCiv, funniest shit I’ve ever seen
- I can’t link to anything in particular, but the VintageCiv community is a little hyped for the Vintage Story 1.18 release, as it adds a lot of content that could be really cool, especially terrain generation, so it would be kinda cool to see VintageCiv 2.0
- Yes, we all like to antagonize Pavia but I’d like to commend them for making a better “Getting Started” guide than I probably will have time to eventually do
- Special un-thanks to Britisher who created a wiki page called “Toxic Icarianity” and then immediately had the gall to ping me in the IF discord
Non-Civ Content
I’m adding this small section as a little of a palate cleanser from all of the Civ content and to motivate everyone a little bit harder to touch grass. I did this before, you know!; feel free to reach out to me if you wanted to add any random thing you’re passionate about here.
- Kaprediem is just asking people what music describes their nations’ vibe. Maybe I need to make a playlist of this stuff…
- Highroll is making biscuits while seething from being banned from Reign
- Now that baseball is back and Spring Training, isn’t it funny that we literally need to speed things up to make it actually enjoyable?
- If the crossword clue was “Getting amscray under control”? and the answer was “TAMINGOFTHESHOO” I would be extremely pissed. (July 11, 2021 NYT crossword if you’d like to try for yourself!)
”The Newsletter Has Never Been More Over”
A beautiful handrawn map from Henderwicz showcasing all the highlights of Shiroyama, Nara! (CivMC)
Phew! What a newsletter. Thanks for reading week number 41 of the newsletter! Only 11 more weeks until BritishWanderer gives me his present…
I want to remind people that even though there are two popular servers within the Civ community right now, that you guys should not make this a competition between servers, or have cross-server drama between the servers. I find it perfectly OK and it’s not productive for the Civ community to trash one server over another — it just depletes the quality of Civ in the long run and nobody wants that. This newsletter’s goal is to bring the Civ community together and keep everyone informed, competing over Civ servers makes that goal worse.
Finally, the usual:
- Submit a featured article on CivWiki to get your content highlighted on the front page of the CivWiki and the newsletter! It’s a great way to show your stuff to everyone who reads!
- Submit an op-ed! You can write about how the Civ genre is dying, what we need to do advertise, all of that stuff. You can even just rant like bg!
- Edit the got damn Wiki, if you’re not writing down your history, it’s entirely possible you’re forgetting something important.
- Donating to my ko-fi, there is once again no benefit besides a shoutout and a nice feeling that you supported original independent content creation.
If you’re not sure what to write, feel free to reach out and we can talk about what we can. It’s a great place to develop your lore!
Alright, that should be it from me. Thanks for reading, and I will see you all next week in March! (or I guess in CivReign days, February 35th…)
And of course…