CivWiki Newsletter for August 8, 2022

Good morning and happy Monday from New England! Another bright and sunny day that nobody is going outside to because everyone’s probably yelling at whatever Rhode Island did. Or Estalia. Who knows?

This week’s newsletter was also contributed by the newsletter’s staff, helping out to write many of these sections, fact check, and edit these newsletters. Yes, this has become a full-scale operation which is incredibly helpful as the server grows and more events happen, needing to find, record, and gather all information together becomes more difficult than just looking on the subreddit for all the information.

Featured

Featured Image

This week’s featured image is of a new market section, within Gensokyo’s town, Tenseimiya. It’s currently under construction in game. In the background, you can also see a large structure with a view of the Jaded Dragon. Topaz4293 has been designing the whole city on the creative server and is part of the first major expansion of the city. Her comments also say: “Please remind me what the sun looks like because this is literally all I did with my Saturday”. Big mood.

Featured Article

This article was written by Des23, a newsletter contributor.

The Goten Secession Conflict was a conflict on Civcraft 2.0 between Mount Augusta and Gensokyo, as well as their supporters, over the validity of the secession attempt of the Gensokyojin city of Goten in New Detroit. The inhabitants of Goten had become alienated from the rest of Gensokyo over Goten’s increasing contributions to the nation’s factories, which the rest of the country had taken advantage of despite being less active. Goten also had a relatively tolerant and welcoming culture compared to the hard-line conservativism of the country’s leadership. After seceding from Gensokyo, Goten requested to be annexed by Mt. Augusta, which they obliged, pitting the city and Gensokyo against each other.

Alliances were formed to back each side and a standoff ensued. Gensokyo formed a coalition which included Grundeswald, Prussia, Hjaltland, and the FSR, while Mount Augusta gained support from Nox and ISIS. After a two-hour standoff outside Goten, Augustan-aligned fighters charged into the city and claimed victory, while Gensokyojin forces left. This resulted in a final withdrawal of the Gensokoyjin side, as well as acceptance of Mount Augusta’s sovereignty over Goten on August 8, 2015. (Full article…)

This week’s featured article picture is a screenshot of MtA fighters and allies invading the Gensokyojin capital of New Detroit on 8/8/2015.

Current Events

This section’s header picture is of Blood Village in mainland Rhode Island, created by u/MikeJones07 and Aix.

Wartime Journalism

Last week, as soon as the newsletter got released, more news came out. Are you guys doing this to spite me? Thanks to reporters from the Lambat Post, Pavian Tribune, and Daily Nut for reporting on some of the following news:

• On the morning of August 1, Rhode Islanders obbybombed the market at 0,0, colloquially known as G-Mall. Initially reported by Walkers, Rhode Island placed obsidian within the mall and also griefed a statue of Gregy165.
• As retaliation, Estalian fighters attacked a cactus farm in Rhode Island. Rhode Islanders fought hard but lost, with Subject_010, kicky_ and Druid being pearled.
• Along with the other four pearls gained the week before, Rhode Island’s losses of fighters totaled seven by midweek.
• Very shortly after, nearby Pavia denounced the obbybombing actions by Rhode Island, which was met with wide support.
• Toontasker wrote an essay the next day justifying the use of obbybombing at 0,0 to disable essence collection systems and military infrastructure;
  • A follow-up essay later that day attempted to justify the war by framing the Bob_The_BuiIder events during the war’s outbreak as Estalian aggression breaking the previously agreed upon Non-Aggression Pact, as you saw last week.
  • Both posts were not well received; many brought up reasons against Estalian aggression, justifying those as a reasonable defense strategy. Toontasker dismissed many of these as “misrepresenting the situation”.
• On August 4, Rhode Islanders pearled Icenian Shadno for supposedly aiding Estalia in the conflict this past week. So far, no evidence has been brought up proving this is the case, with toontasker saying it is “classified information”.
  • Icenian President ChrisChrispie posted a statement on the subreddit, additionally stating the incident was part of a long line of unwarranted aggression against Icenia.
  • Rhode Island officials have also not stated a trial timeline, with many expecting Shadno to be permanently pearled.
• The Lyrean Community also passed a resolution which argues strongly against the recent obbybombings of non-military structures, vowing to clean up all obbybombings of non-military obbybombings within their borders.
• By late in the week, most of the fighting was centered on Rhode Island’s nether portal shared by multiple nations.
  • August 5 saw an Estalian citizen pearled by Rhode Island, ThePayman.
  • August 7 saw Rhode Islander _Exclaibur being pearled from Rhode Island as well as Estalia disabling the bunker adjacent to the portal.

This subsection’s header picture is of the rapid development within the Mill District in the Commonwealth, overlooking a bamboo sanctuary for pandas and new cottages around the hillside.

Server Happenings

• Despite upgrading to the new server, lagspikes and frequent crashes made a resurgence last week. SoundTech placed the issue by a faster server locking up threads due to concurrency issues, as well as optimization fixes which solved issues by the weekend.
• There is something about a dog and a particular peeing gif going around on the discord. It seems to source from this war post but is included for no discernable reason except for the joke.
  • However, nobody on the moderation team seems to like it that much and admins have given multiple reminders to stop while also being ambiguous.
  • Many on the server would not consider the gif as NSFW, since it is a dog peeing on the floor, which is a symptom of many household families that also own dogs.
  • The situation bears a striking resemblance to controversy on the CivClassic regarding this toothpaste picture
• CivReign has started development back up again, looking to recruit a map specialist proficient in WorldPainter to modify an existing map.

Other Notables

• Raids have continued by AbbyShapiro among many nations around the server. Among those affected…
  • Icarus has been raided not once, but twice (talk about obsessed)
  • A raid on Western Boundary triggered a 175d bounty to be placed on AbbyShapiro and an associate, YouWillOwnNothing
  • JamesMason was supposedly raiding with AbbyShapiro in Mery which caused him to get pearled by Molokan associates.
  • AbbyShapiro fled through central Alenarith with several bounty hunters on their tail, resulting in AbbyShapiro committing suicide in lava to avoid being pearled by meat312 in Dalgon. Contributed by prawny331.
• Grumpywalnut96 pearled two people, pearling bertobarto and hi_im_k3v
• Icenian elections resulted in a victory for both returning senators and newcomers, and President ChrisChrispie congratulated Enforcer15 for winning Speaker of the Senate.
• An analytical video on diamond vein distribution shows a distinct sparse vein with ~104 ores, but is in the shape of a heart.
• Kallos and Wolken have both entered the Arsenio Pact from their most recent claims post.
• A trauma hospital has been opened in Petrichor, the first of its kind.
• After last week’s union dispute in Pavia, the government led by Gobblin I committed to make reforms for the CFMME Union. Labour reforms are being led by CaesarBiggles, the duke of Caeseria. Crossposted from the Pavia Tribune.
• The Hyperborean Confederation held its August elections last week, with Spaceman_Spleef obtaining a second term. Aqua_Gamer won a term as Vice President and the Minister of the Interior. Contributed by Aqua_Gamer.
• Raiders from Mayflower were pearled by Hyperborea after previously raiding other nations in the region; they will be released soon. Contributed by FE_flags.
• After weeks of exhibition games, the New Danzilona Hockey League (NDZHL) has been revived with four teams, marking the first organized long-term sports season since Civcraft 2.0.

The Fun Stuff

This section’s header picture is of Prideland’s main town, an expansive village centered around a mighty tree within the cold tundra at the far south end of the map.

Good Lookers

Ok guys, I get it, you all want to take pictures of MtA and Lusitania but you know, like other nations are cool too! I didn’t highlight either of them in this week’s newsletter!

• CivRenders has returned making more renders of somehow everyone’s favorite midwestern looking town, Mount Augusta
• InvertedMind and DrKnees visit the lovely Lusitania station
• TheJmqn tries his hand at rendering Lusitania which is honestly bigger than I thought it was
• Reconstruction Era is beginning work on a Bioncle statue. Crossposted from the Skulkington Fodder.
• Blood Village within Rhode Island looks like a nice village town compared to the rest of the stuff that’s going on. Hope that stays unscathed in the war.
• A nice tour around Aldenfult in the Arsenio Pact was created by Saren_Solaris!
• It’s always kind of nice seeing a good ‘ol tavern to rest your feet after a long journey, especially this one in Lilliput.
• Commonwealth is progressing nicely with amazing builds on Mount Olympus, Verdant Valley, and Sashimii Cove. Take a look at this postcard from SturdyShelf as well as highlights on the CivMC discord.

The Art Gallery

• Although this technically isn’t art, the handdrawn Lambat Metro Map does look like a work of art.
• For the first time, pixel art as notes are present on the server, the first being created by FELINE; it’s technically more cost-effective than building map art.
• Ok, yes, I’m stretching the definition of “art” this week but can you solve Rekt’s Brewery clues? It’s inspired by GreatLordOz’s brewery clues back on CivClassic. I can’t reveal the answer here since I can’t do a spoiler on this website, but it does make a Sarsaparilla.
• Gensokyo’s map of their territory has beautiful art direction describing every square meter
• Technically this is a Good Looker and an Art Gallery post, but Venne’s postcard reminds me of those old California postcards with the surfboards and whatever. Looks great!
• Again, more of a map, but smav12’s map is a very nice topographic and information map of Danzilona. It even has wavy letters like Venne’s!

Memes Ahoy

Everything Related to the War

• Yes, I do stay up all night “monitoring the situation” writing the newsletter
• Yoahtl reminds everyone about literally repeating the same things over again
• Orinnari tries to brag about Yoahtl moving “correctly” but are they supposed to be bragging about that?
• Even I am still thinking why this has happened
• insert slander meme here — god now I actually need to do that
• Serial memer wjkroeker parodies another post, and now I really know why the war started
• Did he really predict this two months ago? Has this server been actually running for two months? Have I been doing this newsletter for two months?
• Um…this is a TikTok that exists?
• You see, the strategy is to just declare war, right? 100% success rate so
• Most useless pearl of all time
• Everyone is legally required to surrender to God

Everything Not Related to the War

• I think that’s actually sheep superman in Lilliput
• How is MtA not Chaotic Neutral
• So it’s a giant castle in the middle of nowhere, big deal, is that what MtA is supposed to look like
• Dog gif? What a very ambiguous reason

Advertisements

• Tricon is looking for authorized retailers with high prices for beacons, not akin to a certain computer company?
• Typical Yoahtl economic scene

Metagame Highlights

• I swear, this is just a dog splashing into a pool. What is wrong with that?
• Gensokyo watched Morbius during its last movie night and profusely heckled its terribleness. Unfortunately, this is the only public proof I can obtain

Wartime Cry for Help Redux

This section’s header image is a postcard of Venne’s landscape in Ice Shard National Park, along the south part of Alenarith.

Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter!

This week’s newsletter was graciously proofread and contributed by a number of CivWiki editors and common contributors.

Now that we’re basically two months into the server, I do want to thank a few people who have been excellent contributors to the newsletter so far:

• Des23 for contributing this week, as well as many other Featured Articles in the past
• prawny331, Aqua_Gamer and FE_flags for contributing current events this week
• banyough, Lodish, Gjum, tybug, Metriximor and others for being proofreaders for both factual and grammatical errors

You can be involved in the newsletter by asking, or by submitting a featured article through this link.

We’ll be handing out a CivTCG card for those who submit featured articles and those who also write a quality page on CivWiki throughout August. We hope to offer more enticing rewards in the future!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week. Until then…

EDIT CIVWIKI

• < < < Last week’s newsletter (August 1)
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