CivWiki Newsletter for August 22, 2022

Good Monday morning from (probably rainy) New England! This was a dark week for Civ but it is Monday, so I guess it’s about time for me to just bitch about it.

At this point, I feel like I’m repeating the same things that I would be writing for CivWiki anyway, and nothing has really changed since the last two wars, they just go onto the next buildfriend town, make it unusable for no reason, and then leave. It’s kinda pathetic for the people who just want to build for god’s sake, because I want to talk about the stuff that makes Civ fun and exciting, and not just another anarchy or factions server.

Alright, off my soapbox right now. It was a tough week for me and I’m sure for everyone else. I enjoyed a nice beach day IRL.

Featured

Featured Image

Unfortunately a more somber tone for this week’s featured image. You may remember that Pavia’s town hall was the featured picture several months ago. Today’s picture highlights the large extent of obbybombing in the country, with numerous obsidian blocks being placed by Rhode Island fighters around the town hall. When the buildfriend and PvP worlds of Civ collide it is clear, as seen here, that nobody wins.

Featured Article

The Olympics held on CivClassic 2.0 were a recurring large scale community-run sports event. The events were inspired by their real life counterpart, as well as earlier attempts on Civcraft 2.0. The First Olympics was created by the Olympic Committee created by WackyAki and Feathercrown and held in the Olympic Village in Yoahtl in summer 2018. Subsequent iterations were held in The Commonwealth, Gensokyo, and Mount Augusta, with independent organizers, new venues, and different events for each iteration. Mainstay events included Spleef, Thimble, and PvP.

The Fifth Olympics was initially planned to be held in Columbia, however after a civil war and the outbreak of the Infinity War, the games were indefinitely postponed. Icenia announced in May 2021 that they would assume hosting duties for the Fifth Olympics, which would be held the next month. Columbia was finally able to host the Sixth Olympics in the country in December 2021 during the waning days of the server. Currently, no Olympics have been announced for CivMC. (Full article…)

Current Events

This section’s featured image is an upward looking screenshot of Icenia, at their flag. While no grief is shown, this was taken at the time of the city’s griefing.

Thanks, one more fucking time, to the Daily Nut, Lambat Post, and Pavia Tribune for having good information I can steal reporting off of.

The Only Topic This Week

• At the beginning of the week, Rhode Island tested their hand by attacking Elysian Pact member Jorvik. They eventually griefed much of the city and broke into its secure bunker, gaining easy access to a nether portal. Contributed by ItsHoover.
• Rhode Island quickly changed leadership with Danirague taking full control of the nation. He also renamed the nation to everyone’s favorite United States of America.
  • This would be the third supposed leadership change in the country, after Thomas left the leadership after declaring they would be “peaceful” just a few days ago.
• Only hours after becoming the USA, the country declared war on Estalian allies that “[had] zero business in the war”, namely Jorvik, Pavia, SPQR and Titan.
  • USA’s rationale was that these countries were aiding Estalia by sending snitch information using Interpol, a mod hosted by Estalians.
  • However, their proof was quite flimsy at best, entirely hinging upon screenshots covered up with colored squares. At least it was a little more colourful than a classified FBI doc.
  • Supposed “actual proof” was posted roughly an hour later, but many of the screenshots showed allies contributing only minor materials to the country, similar to how Shadno was pearled for providing stone to Estalia.
• The country’s main fighters, Adderal and RonPaul, quickly launched an offensive against Pavia, and obbybombed much of the city.
  • Many Pavians as well as Estalians rushed to defend the vault behind the station; while resulting in no losses on either side, it resulted in a large obbybombing of the megastructures in the city by RonPaul and Adderal.
  • Pavia believed that their avoidance of military conflicts especially the Estalian skybridge did not warrant a declaration. Nevertheless, Pavia declared war against Rhode Island and lamented how all formal agreements for neutrality were unilaterally breached by Rhode Island.
  • Since then, Pavia has called on all countries, especially those build-oriented, to stand against Rhode Island and their way of life.
  • Some in Rhode Island continue to deny these claims, believing they have a reasonable motive to declare war.
  • The country of Jorvik promised to help the country, however fighting would quickly move over to another country.

An Unwarranted Attack

• Despite Icenia’s insistence of not getting involved in the war, the country was attacked by Rhode Island raiders.
  • Was there any reason why? Although Icenia was the most powerful town nearby, they had previously stated not to be involved in the war, even breaking off relations with Estalians to further affirm they would no longer be part of any large Civ politics.
  • This was also punctuated by former Estalian Ez2Clutch being involved in the war, seemingly combined with Vah who had previously raided other countries in the world.
  • The country obtained obsidian by robbing djmeffy’s Shelby Industries in Icenia, and quickly used it to obbybomb the burgeoning city.
  • Defence minister Lagiacrus was pearled that night. Multiple attacks occurred trying to break into the bunker, however this resulted in a fruitless effort that night.
  • They would eventually move efforts to Kallos, where no further damages were reported.
• Icenia would be the subject of another attack the next morning. If you’re not keeping track, this is now Friday morning EST.
  • Adderal and RonPaul both attacked the very same bunker the night before, however this time their attacks were successful.
  • Damage in the city was extensive, with a considerable amount of obsidian being placed on the train station, the largest building in the city at that time.
  • An overhead map of downtown shows how much of the downtown area was extensively griefed.
  • Slushhi would also post a video of USA raiding during that day
  • Icenia leader ChrisChrispie said in a personal statement that “Icenia was committed to remaining neutral in the present continuation of [the] war.”, saying “all the rational actors had left the room.”
• Responses from Rhode Island about many of these issues have been plain dismissive.
  • When asked about whether they wanted to raid these nations, Danirague said that Pavia did not deserve to get bombed, but “would do nothing to stop it”.
  • Additionally, he added that “them winning would equal server death” and firmly labeled the country as “the bad guys.”
• Pavia has since asked for help as part of the Pavian Coalition, to ask those who are able to contribute materials and resources to Pavia, as they are expecting most efforts to be focused on the country in the coming days.

This is a really terrible mindset that completely discounts any self-worth of any builder on Civ. I would hate to have builds I spent months on completely wiped out in an afternoon. This shouldn’t be what Civ is about, and I’ve worked hard to prevent that, but as it’s seen now, there was nothing else to Civ except this.

This subsection’s featured image is of the Katipan district within the north of Lambat.

Everything Else That Technically Deserves to Get News

• AbbyShapiro, a raider who has been notorious for serially raiding countries around the Northern Sea, has been pearled by Moloka.
• While Titan Industries is technically part of the above war, Blockchainistan reported that their players had snitched the country.
• Shiroyama was raided by Vah and Ez2Clutch; while both were involved in the Estalia-Rhode Island War, this was less directed towards those nations. Additionally, they did get chased in Yoahtl (again).
• On a lighter note, pearled players from both Estalia and Rhode Island have come together in peace to make a new nation in the Nether.
• New Jersey announced a formal declaration of independence from the USA, citing numerous war complaints.
• ComradeNick released a statement on his reelection in Mount Augusta. While he was voted in with a high margin, his opponent was OrangeWizard, who did not put up a substantial fight.
• KennyTeao, a unsavory individual formerly from Chanada, stole a good amount of wealth from ACRI (also known as Ancapistan).
• A popular PVP server, colloquially known as “Bunkies”, was shut down by Capri earlier this week, which allowed players to practice bunker raids. Squareblob, a former player, has hinted that a new “Bunker Raids” server was in development.
• A Commonwealth proposal to create a Red Cross was well received amongst the war, however international cooperation derivatives like an International Court of Justice and (the always proposed) UN were also naïvely welcomed
• Gensokyo practiced on a new PvP server this week, hoping to educate buildfriends on basic strategies in battle (aka, running and pearling away)
• After a sovereignty referendum this week, Petrichor announced it would become part of Icenia as a province, similar to Bloom’s current political state in the country.

Yeah, I’m serious, everyone who wanted to do anything was just preoccupied with the war. There is literally nothing else to talk about this week. I’m incredibly sad.

The Maybe-More-Wholesome Stuff

This section’s featured picture is of the stables in Provence, a new town being built by Rekt_Tangle in Lusitania.

Cool-Looking Things

Builds

• RektTangle has been hard at work on the above town named Provence in Lusitania, it’s really cozy. He’s been posting regular updates in Lusitania discord and it’s always nice to see.
• Nassau’s new ship, the Queen “ChrisChrispie’s Revenge!”
• Another great view from Lambat, this time of their Katipan district in the north of the country. Additionally, it’s also cool to see a similar picture in #builds, both made by AKJanklin
• More Pridelands rendered have been shown off by Bstallio, don’t know why someone posted a profanity in the reactions though…

Art

• On the paper artwork side, FELINE has produced a pixelated recreation of “Oh the Misery”
• This is a really nice map of Commonwealth land made by SturdyShelf
• And the award for Best CivBall this month, this time a comic of Rhode Island shitting obby on Pavia created by RektTangle.
• Comprehensive Discord PVP tier list by TheJmqn places me in tier 3? I know I’m nice but I at least try to troll people…
• Two war posters are really high quality:
  • Loose Lips sink Lambatan Ships, created by Kaprediem
  • Destroy this mad brute! (and Adderal), created by hitobashuru!

Jokey Funny Stuff

• You know, if you really wanted to tell your coworkers about what you did this weekend, just show ‘em the newsletter and they’ll be confused as all hell.
• See, this is the best approach, just don’t worry about Vah
• This Jeb meme has run its course and it’s not funny. I just have to highlight it because it had good effort. Probably a Jmqn meme lol
• I have the respect, trust and autonomy to do these kinds of things first, and justify it to leadership so we can disseminate the information publicly…but better than Addy right?
• Sorry, I had the wrong abbreviation for USA
• Holy shit they swapped the O’s in Moloka!
• Boy do I love squares which completely act as unrefutable proof
• How about in a different color??
• This is what the world will look like in 2023
• I wasted the easy newsletter joke on the post itself so just go look at the meme
• Well, Orange is at Tier 2, so I guess I won’t hire him
• If nutting is that important…
• So, I really don’t know if this is an extensive troll, but this is honestly pretty badly done anyway. Rhode Island wouldn’t make a PDF.
• Where…where did the olive go?
• Gregy will fix every server issue in existen…oh…idk about that now
• I now issue a Cease and Desist order from my block server

Billboards, but only on Reddit

• Prior to Icenia’s sacking, Rinvincibl3 ran a pickaxe store which didn’t have bad prices, but also good advert design
• Tricon extends their headquarter build contest deadline to…oh tomorrow?
• SpeedyJustice Associates and Co. is hiring new lawyers and others
• New incentive to buy obby
• Extremely high price in Blockchainistan

Just Stuff Out of Game

• Gjum has created a brand new FactoryMod website, showing an overview of all factory recipes. It’s kind of a spiritual successor to Sashimii’s back in 2.0
• Technically, I guess you could contest them for land now since they’re at war?
• Damn, can’t believe poortea just tried multiaccounting
• Another Brewery Clue from RektTangle!
• Not one, but two extremely long Lambat Posts this week.
• Honestly, thanks guys. Really means a lot after six years of playing this block game.

Absolutely Saddening Cry for Help

This section’s featured picture is of a postcard of Rhode Island as self-dubbed “Server Killers”, created by Shadowvdark.

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter, could be another longest version given how much stuff is in here this week.

I wholeheartedly appreciate the outpouring of support this past week, I’ve done a lot this past several years on Civ and it’s always nice to be appreciated for all my efforts!

Thanks this week to Tybug, GetSkinny, Prawny331, and others for proofreading and providing input this week. This newsletter couldn’t be done without them.

We’re still doing a special promotion this month where submitting a featured article gives you a special CivTCG Card in game, Submit a featured article to get your card today!

And, as always

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