CivWiki Monday Newsletter

A (mostly) weekly newsletter for Civ servers supported by the CivWiki


CivWiki Newsletter for May 6, 2024

• specificlanguage

Good morning and happy Monday from New England!

As we enter May 2024, we’re closing in on the 2nd anniversary of CivMC (and more importantly, the newsletter!) I once again cannot thank everyone enough for their continued readership of this very stupid thing.

I was reflecting earlier this week in a Pavia chat about how things like this are, while nice things to have, “make the server more interesting/unique and fun.” Even though when this goes away communication will be a lot harder to come by, I’m very honored to be a part of Civ’s weekly life for the past couple of years, it’s really something impressive that this newsletter has hung on for all this time.

That’s enough sap talk, I think it’s time to get to the news!


For this week’s featured image, we’re taking a break from building-intensive pictures as we take a look at Griffin’s vast flower fields to the west of Adria. Fittingly for spring, the area is filled with roses, lilacs, fields of crops, and small groves, all around a decommissioned aqueduct-now-railroad. It’s a lovely render that is probably one of the best areas of landscaping on Civ, a very underappreciated art form in the genre. Great work!

Featured Article

The Lighthouse Accord was an agreement between the Free Danzilonan Republic and Mery, establishing rights for settlers on islands near Danzilona’s territory. The two nations both originated from Danzilonan and U3P-like roots, particularly in Civcraft 3.0 and Nova Danzilona. Although the two nations were then founded separately, they hoped to charter an agreement that would give rights on its Eastern Shining Isles, and be given both English and Mery names, not unlike a place similar to Gibraltar, for example.

The treaty was initially proposed by Des23 but was withdrawn quickly due to dissatisfaction from the Church of Ranubis, however, it was re-proposed and passed soon after. While they allow Mery residency and protection on the isles, they also have promoted Mery culture on the islands as well. Although the accord was passed, FDR relations soured as laws were passed to prevent conflicts of interest within government as well as purging those not aligned with the Ranubian faith. This forced original treaty writer Des23 to emigrate from FDR to Mery. Although Danzilona still exists today, Mery’s existence is in a dormant state; the islands are still present but are today uninhabited.

The Eastern Shining Isles lighthouse, the Lighthouse Accord’s namesake.

I’m always open for featured article submissions to be put here. Feel free to message me @specificlanguage on Discord for any ideas.


This Week Last Year

On the week of May 8


This ad has been paid for by SoundTechAdminTown election board voted soundtech most handsome and smart civ player with the best beard (suck it Quanton)

To place an ad here, take a peek at the information page.


The News

A view down GMall and Suramir, Estalia (cr: me!)

Server Update

CivMC had a small update this past week, 1.27.0, a quality of life update which included:

Admins have also teased the 1.20 update, although despite their efforts to release it this weekend, it didn’t show as had continued issues. Let’s hope for next weekend!

Around the Server

Metagame Highlights


A message from Lowball LuxuriesHello I am Highroll, and my partner Invader and I are proud to announce the opening of Lowball Luxuries in the nation of Pavia at 722 -3091, grab some of our 20d netherite repair pics and more! Go to the discord to see all the products we offer!https://discord.gg/GnDNHQC9

To place an ad here, take a peek at the information page.


The Fun Stuff

Chalstone Palace, on the islands of Lucassio (cr: Gobblin)

Builds

For those who think that these can’t be built with Litematica… well of course we had to, do you think we’re morons?

Cool Content

Memes

Non-Civ Content

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s a very specifically music-themed non-civ content this week. Consider this a choose-your-own-adventure “post theme” for the next section?


Deposit via Monument Bank branch (Pavia)!Open your Monument Bank account today with NO initial deposit required! Earn interest, transfer funds to over 230 other civvas, with no fees. Bank with any our branches in Pavia, IF, Nara, Volterra, Icenia & Baile.https://discord.gg/civpavia

To place an ad here, take a peek at the information page.


Poll of the Week

Pacem’s Town Square, taken while kissing in front of the Hot Dog Truck (cr: phobitica)

Last week, we had 69 responses (nice).

World Wonders, Part 3

I don’t want to bore you with world wonder introductions, but here’s last week’s results for that…

Predictably, Pavia and Estalia come up big with their great builds, but one that surprised me is Develhof falling short… apparently, not enough people have visited it to be cool enough in most people’s eyes. Sorry RedDevel.

Here’s what it looks like for all the wonders we’ve seen so far.

In future weeks, I’ll probably only keep the top 10 from previous weeks.


Do You Feel Heard?

This was a question sourced from a Topaz poll from earlier on in the server. However, I’m somehow lost the link to the poll so I’ll find it later in my editing process if I somehow find it again.

I don’t want to dive too much into analysis on here but I do think part of the reason for this is because of the slightly cliquey and group-centric nature of Civ. Now, whether that’s the case, that’s up to you to decide!


AI???

The last question was an open response on whether AI could possibly play Civ. This was a question I pulled out of my ass and is really closer to a thought experiment.

Among some interesting responses included…

Define ‘play’ Definitely, but under the current rules it’ll never be able to.

Of course, in any realistic state this scenario is generally impossible. But this sounds like a Squareblob spiral that could be so bad it wraps around to being at least sort of good, which is why I asked. Now onto the real responses…

It could but in terms of socializing and nuance regarding claims it could be difficult to have it distinguish between unclaimed resources and areas to remain outside of.

Civ is a lot of different things- do you want a builder, resource trader, politician, PvPer, etc? You might be able to teach an AI to do some of the more basic tasks, but trying to get an AI with the ability for long-term strategy and cohesive design seems a little impractical

No, because it’s well known by now that real creativity isn’t something AI can provide. Civ is about enjoying exactly that creativity or you could even call it freedom in game wise.

I feel this question isn’t appropriate yet, or at least the answer is easily determinable. In short, No. AI is advancing at an incredible rate but is nowhere near the level it needs to properly play civ.

This question was deliberately vague, although these responses seem fair. I know people like Owain_X have been experimenting with AI recently, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that there could be a player on Civ that could reasonably mimic #general chat, or more appropriately #community_support.

In-game though, that’s a much different beast, as you need it to conform to a playstyle. While AI can reasonably play Minecraft, the nuances of Civ are so drastic compared to Vanilla that it would take a major adaptation for an AI to do something that would be closer to Civ, since it’s not about beating the game, it’s about creativity. I think all of these points hit the nail on the head, and my Philosophy major friends would be interested in these responses.


Vote Now!

This is Wonders seed #4 out of 9. Remember, if you don’t see something you consider your “wonder” now, there’s still five more to go!

Please note that all information submitted is anonymous. A red star (
*
) means that this question is required to submit.
Which of these places do you consider as world wonders?
Select all that are applicable.
Of these inactive nations, which ones do you think had the most potential or impact on the Civ genre?
Select all that are applicable.
Do you think nation reputation actually matters? Why or why not?

To place an ad here, take a peek at the information page.


It’s May Again? Cry for Help

A postcard of Dango Avenue, Shiroyama from Koojikii & Bronnakus.

Something funny about the timing: if my math is correct, the second anniversary of the newsletter is coming up very soon (May 18th). This does also mean that the second anniversary of CivMC is also coming up soon which is kinda cool, isn’t it?

(For those curious, my back of the hand calculations also say that this is the 80th newsletter so far, with the 69th newsletter being unremarkably February 12th, 2024)

Thanks to everyone who contributed and answered a few questions including Owain_X, ziuam8847, Hurin_Thalion, SoundTech, RedDevel, Xcios, BritishWanderer, meenos and whoever else I talked to this week for information!

For those who are looking to contribute to the newsletter:

  • If you want to advertise your own businesses with pictures or the texts above, send some ads over!
  • If you want to help write in any capacity, (whether or not I’ve reached out to you already), let me know at @specificlanguage on Discord. I might be busy and not be able to assign anything to you, but I kind of want a new headcount to see what the future of the news looks like.

With that, I believe that’s all I wanted to say. What a big week this was, and what a week it’ll be next week. Until next time, everyone!


EDIT CIVWIKI