CivWiki Monday Newsletter for March 27, 2023
Good morning and it’s once again another Monday from New England!
I always imagined this newsletter as kind of like a common space, kind of like a bulletin board where all of Civ congregates and comes as one to see what’s happening around, and it’s certainly felt when we have a big loss in the community such as what we’ve had this past week.
Are we ready for the news?
Featured
Featured Image
This week’s featured image is the NoOneTruePunk memorial, recently built in Winterbourne. I didn’t know Punk personally, but I definitely interacted with them in the community very often. Unfortunately, the announcement of their passing kind of shocked me; they were only active a few days just before the announcement and it was incredibly heartbreaking to hear we lost another Civ player. Although I didn’t report on her happenings that much, the fact that I could always see them in Discord asking questions about every mechanic or throwing hot takes, they really showed that they were truly a great representation of Civ all along. All of us in the community are going to miss them immensely.
Leaders in Fempire will have a few more words about them later.
Featured Article
OneDest is a rail routing standard for the RailSwitch plugin present on CivMC. Previously known as SARS, or Start-Agnostic Rail Standard, the standard attempts to address many of the shortcomings inherent with the KANI and AURA rail standards present on CivClassic, such as needing a website or bot to calculate the optimal path, and therefore the intermediate destinations and subsequent command to route the user. OneDest attempted to remedy this by setting a static command for all destinations.
Originally theorized by TheOrangeWizard and Metriximor, it started as a pilot program by SandFalls. Small lines on the HITS and other adjacent rail lines around the Augustan Federation were converted to do so. Eventually, it was implemented in full starting with the Copper Line on CivMC with support from smal and Djani’hweh. As more rail lines were created across the server, such as the Colonial Express and L-Line 2, there were few changes in routing due to the standard’s reliance on geographical location. The rail standard continues to grow and its discord has become a central place for rail planning across the server.
This week’s featured article image is Pavia’s rail station, a popular destination on OneDest.
CivReign News
Kýlârá Êmýnlâd, or the “Peace Gardens” in Gâí’ádôr on CivReign. Taken by The_Shelob.
- A previously “undiscovered” continent in the southeast of the map was discovered this past week by Courronite JamesMacC8.
- However, Borzoia, who settled on the island on the first days of the server, requested to keep the island, named Verdant Isle, off claims maps in an effort to “make preserving it easier.”
- There are quite a few people opposed to this as many argue that it’s important to at least know that things are there, and that preserving it easier is not really a valid pretense for doing so. If we’re trying to roleplay New Zealand, people know about it and they still ruin it all the time!
- However, most of the week was marked by public claims posts.
- Laurentia’s plans to build their capital, Serena, came with a decree for all citizens to move their homes to make way for the new city.
- Laurentia also elected Meemai as their new Doge, as well as selecting several new players to the council and Marquis
- They also created the Special Title and Advisors Act, paving the way for a new Chief of Militia.
- Courron has begun voting for a new flag (finally), some of which are symbolic of the country’s geography and history.
- Norlund will be hosting their Carrot Festival in Kannin, their capital (-11600, -7400) on April 8th, 7PM GMT. A proud Norlish tradition dating back to 2020, the festival will have several events including a spleef tournament and drunk PVP. Free booze included! Join their discord for more information.
- Gensokyo has had a continued struggle with planning this weekend difficulties with seasonal changes, importing a world download (and associated rules) and many other problems have slowed the country’s progress in building their planned megabuild.
- CivReign’s latest (and only) changelog this week introduces Fertilizer blocks which are required to grow crops.
- It’s the latest overhaul for them to “make XP recipes easier and make land claims more valuable”.
- The update also came along with several changes to make gameplay more seamless, such as boosting ore output, changing bronze drops due to cast iron, and no longer skipping night due to beds. Whoops.
CivMC News
The Kibblecrew and Gang Shi meeting to discuss terms for asylum.
Kibbleconfusion
After last week’s program, we left off last week with Kibblestan having their bunker disabled after raiding Icenia.
- I made several mistakes last week when talking about the Kibblestan “obbybombs” regarding motive and location, and was rightfully called out by Icarus and Winterbourne on separate occasions. This has been rightfully fixed on the CivWiki homepage and on the newsletter for last week.
- To prevent further conflict with the SEC, Kibblestan negotiated with Gang Shi to move their base to the country on March 24.
- While Gang Shi obliged, several leaders within the country began to scheme a way to pearl the raider crew easily.
- On March 25, the SEC were notified that the raider crew had an attack bunker in Gang Shi, and created an attack tunnel from Yoahtl to successfully disable the bunker
- However, on March 26, a counter-attack from the Kibblecrew on the SEC attack bunker prompted a counter-counter-attack on the bunker from the SEC; although the Kibblecrew fought back this time, when Gang Shi fighters arrived SEC fighters retreated.
- Following the attack, Kibblestan suggested to continue chasing; while Gang Shi disagreed, they eventually agreed on travelling to Cortesia Del Mar, originally just to “ping snitches”, but Kibble’s crew eventually obbybombed the country’s main square or Zocalo.
- Assistance eventually came later in the day from Pavia, Estalia, Ila’Kyavul, and Gang Shi to clean up the mess, some owed to them as a favor when Cortesia helped Pavia when they were obbybombed.
- Eventually Wilson & Kibblestan agreed to go to the Gang Shi vault, with Wilson giving them vault groups.
- However, it turned out this was a ruse to get them trapped; once in the vault, Gang Shi fighters suddenly revoked their access and attacked the raider crew with Wilson and jbblocker pearling Somebra and SOGGYHOBO.
- Jakub_Tyrell is currently logboxxed in the vault, while ___The_Boss___ and Tuna420 are currently still at large.
- Gang Shi has offered to transfer the two pearls they obtained to SEC custody tomorrow.
- bgbba offered…some thoughts regarding the situation.
I’m gonna be honest, even I had a migraine trying to figure all of this 9D Chess out.
Commonwealth Protests
Continued protests occurred from the Commonwealth stemming from North Africa’s separation from the Commonwealth.
- The secession of North Africa has seen widespread effects in the country Thursday saw the Commonwealth release footage from the OakShelf trial for treason, of which he was acquitted and peacefully seceded from the country.
- However, unrest continued in protests on March 22 with the Verdant Valley Labour Union visibly protesting in support of the Prime Minister.
- The unrest comes from SturdyShelf’s interpretation of the DOTEK, the “Declaration of the Eternal King”, the religious document stating that there would be a second incarnation of King Peter, of which SturdyShelf interpreted the second coming to be theFinalGoat, where as the throne was handed to King Bowilla.
- The continued tensions between the former territory and the Commonwealth have resulted in North Africa screening Commonwealth individuals prior to entry to prevent further unrest and possible terrorism in the country
North African Governor OakShelf had this to say in response:
I think they are quite narrow minded and misguided. The people of North Africa made their decision, and we are willing to work with the CW to ensure a peaceful future. It appears they do not hold the same sentiment however sadly.
For more information regarding these protests, please see the background here.
All the Other News
New Felicity’s Town Hall, located in Feline on Deluvia in the Imperial Federation, taken by southw3st.
I’m avoiding the elephant in the room because I don’t think it really deserves as news and really should get separated from the rest of the news here.
- Midgard was founded as a new Imperial Federation province, formed by the merger of Mount Hassaan, Halland and Esberg in the Western regions on the country.
- Coolchacha97 was pearled by fredhun in Dalgon (where both hold citizenship), and is currently serving a sentence in Nara.
- ComradeNick has informed me that Mount Augusta is celebrating 11 years on Civ on March 31.
- The Cinian Union was formed with Edius, Weirdscraftland, Lesneria-Wlazestan, and other countries around the Phoenix Coast.
- The FWC of Lesneria and Wlazestan, both new nations on the former Grand Imperium land, formed a union of their two nations.
- Grand Imperium made an agreement to join Yoahtl, for strategic safety and domestic protection.
- The country also ceded all territory except Capitum, and Yoahtl agreed to protect the territory as a Yoahtlan homestead under Attoprak’s leadership.
- The Monument Group is announcing their Q1 2023 financial results on April 1st.
- Pavian Crown Prince Paagf I died on Saturday, surviving only one Dice Day; his son, Paagf II was elected as the new Crown Prince after a few hours.
- Zolo was elected as Icarian president with 10 out of 12 votes
- CivMC admins found a fix for mistaken vulcan kicks from the server when bridging over open air, and will implement the fix on their next round of changes.
Everything Else
Smaller Civ Servers
- CivRev introduced One Time Teleport on their beta server, something sorely needed for the largest Civ map that exists right now.
- In the meantime, Owain is reimplementing a Random Spawn mechanic on the server, due to frustrations with the normal Random Spawn plugin.
- LiquidStereo is also doing an activity check on the server, to see who’s actually actively playing the server on a semi-daily basis.
- A week or three late, but Bunkies finally has Spawn Protection on Warps
Metagame Highlights
- For those who aren’t in Praxis discord (most of you), GordonFreemanQ, a major contributor to plugins in the Civcraft and Devoted years, returned to Civ development, and has made a few contributions to CivMC plugins despite only returning for only a week. From what I can see, he’s provided a lot of good insight on product management, something that Civ desperately needs.
- He’s also proposed a World Portals series of events, something badly needed for continued engagement on Civ for players, which has generally had good reception. I will say that regular events and compelling gameplay always makes for a thriving community, I mean look at Splatoon 3…
- Henderwicz suggested everyone write in a journalistic tone in order for new players to understand stuff happening on the server easily.
- There is a lot of good metagame discussion here, it’s worth a read if you’re a nation leader or higher-up in a nation.
- While I did kind of joke about making a newsletter style guide, I think it’d actually be really helpful and I should probably work on it when I have time (but I probably won’t have time…)
- Tolype_Velleda hosted another “vibes to chill to” stream last Friday for everyone to chill to vibes
- JeyHey’s suggestion for a reputation channel really do be shot down
The Fun Stuff
A little cottage in Ramsau Village, on CivRev. Taken by Aeth.
Builds
- As always, Gâí’ádôr is pulling out bangers every week at this point, with a hanging gardens area as well as their town square in a crowded forest.
- A small slice of Ramsau Village on CivRev is a very great example of how small little things can still look really good.
- The Warmian capital building has a very nice German city feel to it
- Another very cozy area in the Imperial Federation got built in New Felicity, I don’t know why it reminds me of Jackson, Wyoming from the Last of Us but it does…
- Warmia’s embassy in Mercutio is literally an AT-AT walker and looks fucking sick
- The Joja Bakery has some new coffee products along with a cozy interior in Lambat
- Yoahtl also has some striking pictures, from this past week taken by Quauhtli’n’Mia, my favorite is just the pigeon statue in Altepetl’s square despite all of the amazing pictures sent
- There were a few memorials for NoOneTruePunk, one on CivReign built by katzmoor that looks like a Zelda-style Sheikah Tower, a statue in Lambat by MaybeGravy that’s looks like “Winged Victory” as well as one in Winterbourne on CivMC that’s like an eternal flame. I’m also aware that Fempire is intending to build a memorial for them in the future.
Multimedia Projects
- A couple of claims maps caught my eye on CivReign last week, including just one of the Western World looking like CivRealms’ map as well as one of the whole world adapted from Mochas by MrPandastical
- AgentSparks8 posted an “empires” map which I guess is kind of like Spheres of Influence? Anyway it’s still good
- I like the vintage newspaper vibe of Courron’s announcement of the Verdant Isle
- Not actually something but everyone has forgotten that Kira has a !quote command
- This Petergrad overview reminds me of those old “Thomas the Tank Engine” mats I used to play on as a kid
- _Klopsik really did spent hours in Premiere Pro to deliver this Evangelion opening, gotta commend him for his effort here
- OreStraya has made a combo-let’s play/advertisement of the server, it’s 18 minutes of good content that he is “clickbaiting for newfriends”. I can’t believe DreamSMP is actually Civ
- I’m gonna be honest, ACCoker’s is pulling out some really good content about the newfriend experience, probably the best Civ let’s play I’ve seen in a while. I wholeheartedly laughed out loud in public, a rarity for me in the newsletter. The personalities are great, can’t wait to see more.
Memes
- Nothing happened on CivMC’s discord March 24, 2023
- My wife (F39) and I (M42) are at the end of our rope with our (M14) newsletter son
- BritishWanderer Slander
- So I know there’s a Carrot Festival on April 5th in Norlund but come on, this announcement isn’t something I can’t call a meme
- Someone is going to get epilepsy from this biome picture on CivReign, guys
- Speaking of CivReign causing problems with biomes, Genso is having some fun
- Whatever this means…
- Civ has been suspended until further notice
- Lagi, this isn’t a well timed joke at all
- ¡Apagando las luces!
- Civ is suspended until further notice
- I can’t make a joke about something I don’t know about, so I guess, here’s Kibblestan referencing inside joke #129
Non-Civ Content
- Although I have been sick for much of this week, I have been occupying my time getting through Create: Above and Beyond the past week (w: CurseForge link). And I’ve been on Chapter 1 for like a week now and only just got to Chapter 2 yesterday
- Other things I’ve done to pass the time while sick are
- getting into Critical Role because my SO really likes it,
- listening to Seattle Mariners Spring Training baseball, as Opening Day is in less than a week now! Their pitching rotation is actually nuts though
- playing Chess but really badly as I have to make a Chess Bot for class
- There was a like, a lot of people in Genso just watching Sono Chi No Sunday this Sunday, join their discord for regular movie/television nights
- My average weather experience
- Jet Lag’s newest season is running around New Zealand and I am only mentioning it now because it will never make it into a joke or compliment on the main newsletter
Melancholy Cry for Help
A frame (or I guess court painting?) of the video of the North Africa trial in the Commonwealth.
Special thanks to Jindosh and the rest of Fempire, Zamoradin, BernofSanders, BritishWanderer, Creepi0n, Yodabird, Metriximor, reffelruz, OakShelf, Kibbles (yes), Gamertime, and Wilson for providing information for this week’s newsletter. Phew, that’s a lot of people!
While I will do the usual call for people to pitch Featured articles (thank you Slushhi and prawny for being willing!), I’ve reserved this last part of the newsletter for talking about NoOneTruePunk. I reached out to Fempire for one last memory:
The Fempire Union folks met together in real life this weekend to mourn and remember Punk. We would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support from the community. Yodabird said something that really stuck with me: “Set the Minecraft trappings aside, and we are all just people together in this.” We all talked about our favorite certified Punk moments, so I wanted to share another that we agreed was a good one:
At SOTW we were all very busy slaving away making farms and mining. We did not know Punk too well at this point, but everything was going alright for the most part. Punk decided that they were going to make a machine that printed pumpkins. For us at that point it took a ridiculous number of resources and we were all annoyed that this machine was taking so much when we had so little. They even took all of our reserve obby at one point and encased the whole machine for protection. They were more worried about that damn machine than our main bunker during the Bergburg incident. Honestly, they were right though. That machine was and continues to be a source of wealth and trade for us. It has more than paid for itself many times over. Thank you, Punk, for your insistence and force of will. We will miss you.
I imagine that their essence will live on in the newsletter for months to come. Rest in peace Punk. As always…