CivWiki Newsletter for January 29, 2024
Good morning and happy Monday from New England!
I am totally not doing a newsletter this week so I can start making this weekly once again, although, I given, I guess this is the first time we’re doing this newsletter weekly in quite a while.
There’s something of a fire lit inside of me and I’m riding that wave a little bit right now, as I’ve felt way more productive on projects outside of Civ, and I think that kind of followed its way into here. That being said, it’s been another quiet week in Civ. I’ve taken the opportunity to change a couple things around here and work on the website just a tad. Hope you like it, and let’s get into the news!
Featured
Featured Image
After pictures of the town have shown up for weeks and weeks, this week’s featured image is Groveheart Keep in the Imperial Federation. They’ve constructed a lovely medieval and rustic keep within the deep taiga of the southwest, and the wood and stone textures perfectly compliment the environment. The town (unfortunately not shown in this picture) doesn’t slouch on this either, it’s a great representation of a woodland village. It continues to be one of the best sites on the build channel, and I hope to see more!
Featured Article
Mercutio is a nation founded on CivMC known for its exquisite builds, community, and integration into its jungle environment. Self-described as a “newfriend nation”, the country was founded the fall after CivMC’s launch. Although the countries lies near Icarus, Icenia and Kaowta, the country has seen very little direct content and has developed a peaceful culture well-suited to their tropical land. They have also contributed to humanitarian aid with the clearing of a water wall of grief.
Due to their peaceful policy, the country developed its own unique culture. The country’s main capital, Malina has an architecture style that is distinctly grown in with the jungle landscape within the Northwest region. Their participation in the Olympics netted them many medals at the Shiro-Swisston Olympics, while they continue to participate in the server’s hockey league. They have friendship agreements with several countries and are well known as peaceful mediators for conflicts across the server.
This week’s featured image is of Malina, the capital of Mercutio. Mercutio was slotted this week because the article tied for 3rd place in the wiki editing competition at the end of the 2023.
Featured Writing
The long awaited sequel to the best stuff I saw in 2022 is finally here, speclang’s best of 2023! Sure, it’s not specifically related to Civ, but it might be worth the 34 minute read. How is it longer than last year?
This was more of a passion project over the last month than anything. I don’t care if you read it or anything, just happy it’s finally done!
This Week Last Year
On the week of January 30, 2023,
- King_Cupar, king of the Imperial Federation, suddenly resigned citing burnout, and general attitude of the server regarding newfriends.
- He handed the crown to incumbent IF Chancellor Jalhf but would come back to lead the Imperial Federation and secede from the country later that summer.
- A monarchist insurrection led by banyough overthrew Lambatan President Kaprediem, leading to a Farley civil war involving all territories in the country.
- CivMarket announced the closure of plot operations in its owned territory, following months of inactivity in the area. Estalia quickly claimed the territories after CivMarket leader Jaydon unclaimed the area for newfriends to use.
- Due to unexpected delays and personal issues, CivReign delayed the launch of their server by three weeks to February 17.
- CivRev 3’s beta launched on Feburary 4, as a result of CivReign delaying their launch.
- CivMC revisited their botting rules, intending to stop mods that read player position like Interpol, Synapse and CivModern.
Columnists
I’m trying out something a little new. We’ve had featured writing in the past from contributors and Civ players alike, but SpeedyJustice reached out to me if he could place a regular column in the newsletter. As an experiment, it’s sort of an opinion-like news column you’d see in a regular paper.
Our pilot columnist is Icenian SpeedyJustice.
On War and Peace: The Patriot Reflects
“We are truly living in a time of great peace” is the philosophy that has guided my rational and outlook over the past few weeks on this here server in my beloved Icenia. It is times like these that with every moment that passes a patriot cannot help but compare the effects of new-friends happily galavanting through the streets of my city to the past lows of stay at home orders due to yet another invader wishing to put this great country to its end. Yet try as i might my heart does not sit still and complacent and care-free like these great times should afford it to.
I read about conflicts in far off lands, ones that may be much closer to me in thought than in mere distance. Where there live peaceful kind folk, as of late it seems their energy and exuberance for civ and it’s future serves as a magnet for those less than reputable thieves looking to make their mark robbing and pillaging the innocent.
Where peace reigns true finally in my kingdom it seems the same cannot be said for the rest of the world. How can I, in good faith, enjoy my peace and freedom while others who deserve it equally are terrorized by the same conflicts that Icenians recognize all too familiarly? Is it right for one in my position to truly claim “peace in our times” where all across the world there is a sickening absence of that very thing?
This perplexes the mind of the true Icenian patriot.”
If you’re interested in writing a column or longer piece for the newsletter, please contact me @specificlanguage on Discord.
The News and More
Construction of a new rollercoaster in Margaritaville.
Since this is a shorter newsletter by most standards, I’m trying out a different format for the information section, a little more reminiscent of the Monday Mornings of old. This structure might not be sustainable for longer writeups.
News Around Civ
- It wasn’t reported in the news last week, but Mercutian territory was hit with a water bombing last week, stretching over 1200 blocks of their territory.
- Although several players from Nara, Icenia, Pacem, Commonwealth and Volterra and xFier came to their aid to assess the damage, they asked for help to run flying machines over the weekend.
- Flying machines were then sent to cleanup the water wall from the source, they continue to cleanup the water wall over the weekend despite its slow pace.
- Anyway, Here’s Waterwall
- A new nation called Derzavia claimed areas near Gang Shi in the far northeast corner of the map. However, it overlapped claims from other new nation Rotteburg which were claimed on the uppermost island.
- The leader of Rotteburg, ColonelPopeyes, worked on peacefully resolving the dispute, but was met with Derzavia voting to “forcefully removing [him] from the island”, and threatened to declare war if his demands were not met.
- The international community has overwhelming backed Rotteburg in this conflict, sticking to their original claims in the region. and that this is not a good first impression of their nation.
- On Sunday, ColonelPopeyes then found Derzavia raided and asked those who raided the country to return their inventories instead to prevent inciting unnecessary conflict.
- Des23 gave an update on Cortesia Del Mar land, after an attempt to revive the country earlier this year.
- Most CDM players have no interest in playing Civ again and they wanted to dispel any misunderstandings or issues within the map.
- They ask for people to leave the storage and factory bunkers alone, and would prefer to keep the land until newfriends, allies or other favorable parties find a use for it.
- Icenian Speaker Quanton Biscuit announced that Estalians and Pavians attempted to pearl Sdorr near the Icarus vault.
- Estalia were working off of the suspicion that he supported SoggyHobo, a cheater banned several months ago, however this has been proven false and his claims were dropped.
- Internally, Quanton has announced for Icenians to avoid 0,0 and Estalian claims.
- Ratwormy is starting an international detective agency
- ArtificialIndustries have released their Q4 financial report in 2023, with a share of 1.5 diamonds in dividends. They further expressed an effort to consolidate the company’s various branches and optimizing production costs
- The Bank of Icenia is opening for business! Run by Okx and Orinnari, they are accepting deposits and will pay interest comparable to Monument Group.
- Baile annexed the city of Dunestone in Gang Shi and established a national park in the territory.
- CivMC had a minor update this week updating Vulcan.
Cool Content
- Groveheart still looks as fabulous as ever in the Imperial Federation, best new villages of January 2024
- Margaritaville may not have Jimmy Buffett, but he would be crying if he saw this in Minecraft
- Earyx has a showcase of interior design in Q’Barra, Nara
- X_an shows off their first chart, a timeline of presidents and roles throughout time which has great design
- If I had a nickel for every time we had a Better Call Saul parody on this server, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but I’m surprised it hasn’t happened more than twice
- Not the biggest Gang Shi fan, but I appreciate the production value on this “tribute”
- The building is not that good imo, but the trailer for the RAT Detective Agency is too top notch
- “buildfriend in training was a joke”
- Vinland had this wheel idle while I sneaked into their SPQR VC that night…something’s afoot…
- We got people talking about battle stations in the #general chat and I just want to highlight Owain_X’s crazy setup
- Now that I have an excuse for Non-Civ content, here’s an extremely tired Finn which completely reflects my mood after writing this post
Poll of the Week
We had 71 responses this past week, the questions were pretty topical this time around.
The first question was If CivMC were to expand, what would you like to see?
Map expansion is something that people have been clamoring for for a long time, so it’s a question I wanted to post here. I think we’re all relatively starved for new features, so it’s not really surprising that most things that are high are received highly here, like biome variety and new reousrces, or just anything brand new.
The second question, Have you thought about leaving Civ recently?, had a set of responses that shocked me. I know that Civ has “revolving door syndrome”, but this might ring interesting to some folks.
That “yes” pile is way higher than I had initially thought. But after reading the reasons of those who did say yes, there’s a trend of:
“Feels like there has been major stagnation in the genre with no new features…” “Stagnant play and no community events” “My hope that Civ will successfully innovate beyond its current form is slowly diminishing…” “It’s much more focused on the grind than on rp or civilizations…” “It is my view that no civ server can be truly successful until it prioritizes its environment and mechanics as being conducive to a healthy and constructive space for communities to interact”
Additionally, there’s the other main trend of:
“I tire of the people who pretend to be my friend to gain points in a block game.” “Civ takes a big toll on mental health.” “The community has Ship of Theseus’d into a composition I do not gel with at all…” “Unhealthy relationship with Civ” “I want to go out to take some fresh air”
I think everyone who reads this newsletter regularly knows that this genre is mentally draining, one way or another, but it’s another thing when several responses feel like they’re going to quit because the game doesn’t have enough things that make the game enjoyable, whether community events or new features.
What’s tragic is that I think Civ is best when people come together and unite together in large events, and since nobody wants wars anymore, the best chance of community-driven happening now is something like the Olympics, but it’s hard to innovate when something’s already been done many times before. There are fewer and fewer events to look forward to these days.
It’s not a stretch to say that Civ is in a bit of a low point right now, but considering it’s been in decline for a few years and several servers at this point, no amount of newfriends, newsletters, or YouTuber invasions will resolve this in my opinion — it’s really up to Civ’s admins and leadership to improve the genre for the better. This little corner of the internet is a special place as I think many of us can agree, but the genre’s stagnation and little motivation to play further doesn’t help.
I’m sure I and many others have more thoughts about this, but I’m writing this on Sunday and opinion writers are going to jump on this a lot.
Vote “Now!”
As always, you don’t have to answer every question.
Cozy Cry for Help
A cute little library in the heart of Q’Barra, Nara.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s relatively shorter but maybe more thought-provoking newsletter.
A big thanks to Kingstell, Drekamor, Favbot, SpeedyJustice, ArtificialDriver, and more for reaching out to me this week for some news things.
As I’m finally starting to enjoy software development once again, I want to give this website one last facelift. Nothing drastic like what happened last summer, but just a few quality of life improvements here and there to make it feel more alive. The main thing I want to add are a comments section, so people don’t have to comment on Reddit. I already have to have a backend with the polls, so it’s only a natural extension. Give it one last touch before I go.
As always, if you’d like to help contribute to the newsletter, whether with writing a featured article, a column, or something else, I would gladly appreciate it, contact me @specificlanguage to inquire more! The primary goal with this newsletter is to be a reflection of its community, and doing some writing always livens up the world.
Thanks for reading, and until next time…