CivWiki Newsletter for May 13, 2024

Good morning and happy “anniversary!” from New England!

I hope everyone had a happy Mother’s day and you at least said the word “hello” to your mom. I certainly did.

Now, that being said, I hope everyone also enjoyed the 1.20 update for CivMC — a lot of brand new features that hopefully will inject a little bit of life on Civ.

Meanwhile, it’s worth letting you know the first newsletter launched on May 16, but you know, it’s like a Thursday this year, so we’ll call this part one of the anniversary celebrations. I know that CivMC’s anniversary is still another month or so away, but it’s like a little bit of a pre-celebration right now anyway?

Featured

Featured Image

This week, we have the colorful, glazed buildings along the river in Katipan District, Lambat. The country may be a little inactive right now, but the country has some great builds that I personally feel are unappreciated. This is one of the newer developments in the country, around the start of 2023. You may be familiar with this as it’s part of the main areas at the western end of the Great Overland Railway. I always love colorful, urban landscapes with greenery, and this is a choice one. Great work, and I hope to see more like this in the future.

As we’re coming up on the 2nd anniversary of the newsletter, I’m planning to have another big featured image to celebrate, but for now, I’m happy with how this turned out. This was taken on 1.20 with new shaders, so for me, it was at least a good test run.

Featured Article

Imperial Truidence was a monarchy and republic on CivClassic well known for their participation in the UDF and Nordic culture. Located near 0,0, the country was founded in 2019 with Emperor Bez being its leader, establishing a nation quickly in the marsh and forest area. It was accepted into the first iteration of the United Northern Congress and upon its collapse, was one of the founding members of the United Defense Front along with nearby Icenia. Despite having several changes in government throughout its lifespan, the country remained a stable force within the region, and began to build military defense late within CivClassic’s life.

Despite being memed for the formation of a “frisbee”-like grass structure in its initial town, the country eventually constructed major builds including Coram Castle, St. Bez Cathedral, and Barad Dur. The country also controlled several other cities including Northland, Inis Moin, and Ban Ard. Since the beginning of the country, a religion was founded named Bezism, originally committing to serving a duty to serve the Truidencian state rather than the more mystic devotion it formed late into the server’s life. Today Imperial Truidence’s successor state, the Holy Truidencian Empire, is once again active on CivMC.

This week’s featured article image is of Anburon, Imperial Truidence’s capital on CivClassic.

This Week Last Year

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The News

The beach alongside striking views of Union Hill, Pavia (cr: Seekinq)

Server Updates

On May 10, CivMC had a new update, 2.0.0, upgrading to 1.20.4.

• A few days prior to the update, RedDevel announced what features would be accessible following the update, which included Cherry and Mangrove wood, Bamboo, Mud, and a few mobs, but did not include new biomes and a selection of structures in the update.
• The update was successful with few hiccups, although players had to redo their NameColors, as settings were removed at its initial launch.
• In addition, new recipes were added to several factories for players to access new blocks, including a new factory recipe in the Research Station for accessing consumable Smithing Templates.
• Despite some TPS drops within its first couple days and bed spawns getting reset somehow, the server has been working well without much issue, compared to the last previous technical update.

While you can still use 1.18 clients to connect to the server on 1.20.4, it’s highly recommended you switch to take advantage of all the new features.

Mod Upgrade “Guide”

For those who are still hesitant to upgrade, I’ve quickly compiled a guide for a few frequently used mods on Civ and a quick guide on how to upgrade them. I highly suggest using 1.20.4 as most mods are using this as a target for updating (not to mention the server itself is running on 1.20.4). All links are Modrinth, unless noted.

• Fabric is still the suggested version for most Civ mods these days. It’s an easy install if you use Prism Launcher, or you can download an installer from Fabric’s website.
• For most mods below, you’ll need the Fabric API.

To transport your scripts, configs, etc. from these mods, copy your /configs folder in your Minecraft instance.

• JSMacros just put out a release for 1.20.4, so you can finally bot in 1.20 to your heart’s content (within the rules)
• Although there is no official AdvancedChat release for 1.20, a third party fork that’s worked for me so far is available here. Please note that AdvancedChat consists of five separate mods, so make sure you got everything.
• Sodium
• Iris Shaders
• Litematica (Curseforge)
• WorldEdit (and Client-side UI for builder utils)
• CivModern
• NoChatReports (since 1.20 introduces chat reporting)
• Jade (WAILA)
• Entity Culling — use this if you are experiencing lag in major cities, such as Pavia, Icenia or Altepetl.

The following mods require additional steps to have your data transferred over from your 1.18 instance to 1.20.

• Bobby
  • Copy your .bobby folder to your new instance. You might not be able to see it, but if you’ve been using it, it’s there.
• Xaero’s Minimap and World Map
  • Copy your XaeroWaypoints and XaeroWorldMap to your new instance.
• JourneyMap
  • Copy your journeymap folder to your new instance.
• VoxelMap-Updated
  • Copy your voxelmap folder to your new instance.
• Distant Horizons doesn’t have an official release quite yet, but what’s linked above is a compatible, nightly version.
  • Copy your Distant_Horizons_server_data folder to your new instance.

As official versions for these mods come out, I’ll hope to update the links properly.

Around the Server

A clear sunny morning in Vinland’s town center (cr: BritishWanderer)

• Cokeandmentos was re-pearled, after a raid on Nassau.
  • While previously held by the Imperial Federation for raiding in Myra, the nation freed him accidentally one way or another, and was subsequently released.
  • Tophat and Nekroz, while traveling to Nassau, noticed he was raiding Paddington’s bunker, and promptly pearled cokeandmentos.
  • He is being held in Winterbourne vault for two weeks before being extradited to the Imperial Federation.
• Highroll was pearled by Shadno late on Sunday night while present in Icenia’s vault. (Of course, with the classic “newsletter Sunday night gambit”)
  • He said in global chat that he was using a horse macro and accidentally leapt into the vault.
  • Negotiations are currently underway for his sentencing, mostly due to him having a bounty following numerous crimes against Moria.
• Hylian_Cellist announced that Truidencia would become active once again after being inactive for a year, focusing on building, roleplay and constructing their capital, Nidaros.
• Monument Bank announced the opening of a new bank branch in Vinland, the eighth branch of the company, run by HurinThalion.
• Pacem is introducing a new constitution with a Council of States, a governing body with veterans and rotating officials with elections set to happen soon. Crossposted from the Liberty Gazette.
  • They are also hoping to increase the number of builds to supply the increasing population with housing.
• Volterra elected Cicero, Highboy, Hoover, ChillfroySigibald, and Seldomshock to the Senate, with Cicero becoming re-elected as Lord Paramount, with the Prosperity Party winning big.
• Yoahtl elected its latest councillors with x1025 and Solitaire winning seats, while TheBestDuck, Enzo and MechanicalRift are heading to a runoff to determine the last two seats in the council.
• A late correction from last week if you didn’t see it (out of obligation): Meenos made up a story for his being pearled by IbisMan the previous week, to “give [Ibis] less attention”. I know there’s nothing tying me to perjury on the newsletter, but like, if you lie then it’s going to bite you back…
• Mercutio is planning to be inactive for a while as they are currently occupied by IRL matters.
• Nalora expanded to take over the islands in the South Sea from fellow borough Thule.

Metagame Highlights

• A conversation developed in the #community-support channel about more frequent updates for the Civ community on Sunday morning.
  • Admins were initially resistant to these changes mostly due to the existence of the public roadmap, frequent github feeds, and other information.
  • Other implementations of more communicative messaging have been tried before, but such attempts fizzled out due to not much development being made.
  • It is worth noting that CivMC has had some of the fastest development cycles in Civ history, only rivaling quick Civcraft updates made solely by ttk2.
  • You’ll see some messaging from some of the admins in the weeks ahead, as I’ll try to include a developer corner next week where admins quickly update me about what they’ve been working on in the past week.
• As a result, a short status update mentioning possible instability on the server within the next week or so.
• ComradeNick has another crack at fossils (pun intended), with a lot of good loot to be seen, including a couple of sniffer eggs.
• CivCubed is working on new features, with a focus on new ores and mining as well as enchantment features.
  • It is also worth noting that it’s been highly implied Janet Blackquill is the person working on CivReign, so hopefully they don’t stretch themselves too thin.

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The Fun Stuff

The old town within Groveheart, on a partly cloudy, picturesque evening (cr: Gidein).

Builds

There were a lot of great builds shown off this week. Unfortunately, it is an immense tragedy I was not able to show them all this week, but here’s my favorites:

• To start us off, here’s a beautiful night in snow-covered New Callisto, Imperila Federation, taken by Asgeir.
• Meanwhile in Groveheart, several new builds came up with a joined farmstead with great detail and a quaint little plaza in the old town of Groveheart. (cr: Gidein)
• I think people underestimate Jah Park’s beauty, even if it’s on a rainy day (cr: SlowlyFunny2)
• Meanwhile, a huge tower spawns along the Icenian ocean as it’s the “Tempussy Embassy” — not sure how to describe it but it’s quite complex. (cr: Dr_Bacon_Hair)’
• Vinland’s central town is looking incredible in the sun despite all the snow (cr: BritishWanderer)
• Apparently it’s not going to be a newsletter without a picture of Pavia, on Union Hill this time (cr: Seekinq)
• Njordomir’s wonderful picture of Pavia Main Street has a sky looking like the Aurora Borealis (at this time of year, localized entirely within Pavia?)
• Some moody shaders aren’t going to dampen the night in Q’barra (cr: Earyx)
• However these shaders are quite crazy in Stoomer’s picture of…whatever this is? I want to say it’s Nara or Cortesia or something but the lighting is so bad I can’t tell
• It’s definitely not a crime to show this image of Winterbourne castle at night twice, because, it’s really good! (cr: Princess__Bow)

Now, I went on the server this past weekend to test out some new shaders on 1.20, but I’ll keep them in the archives for now so I don’t stuff it down your throat.

Cool Content

• TheJmqn fired up his map machine again as he makes a political leanings map of the voters within the Imperial Federation, similar to US election maps.
• Sirboss has made a great illustrated guide on opening a Monument Bank account!
• Along with Volterra’s election, a collection of campaign posters were made that have great taste in graphic design.
• This was accompanied by stats and graphics following the election made by Hoover, great stuff.
• Ghas News’ regular content returns with CapianColton comas, the Hamblurglar (as well as part2), and a Godhaven siege
• Seekinq has produced some amazing postcards for the nations of the Lyrean Commonwealth, from Adria, Pavia, Amboise and Zephyr.

Memes

If you don’t see many memes here, it’s because they were mostly spam posts and not quality. At least make it funny and not just a Minecraft face superimposition. I get comedy is hard but at least try to have something that makes a wider Civ community laugh.

• haha me see “You sense 3 diamonds nearby” i mine diamond
• Please join the Icenian militia, I have been obligated to say this
• Forged made a pretty well made graphic on him winning Secretary of the Interior, so… take a look?

Non-Civ Content

• What’s worse than losing a baseball no-hitter in the last out of the 9th inning? Losing it to a solo home run. Dave Stieb strikes again.
• SoundTech and Motoko were gushing over Minecraft mods with Soundtech showing off his base in ATM9
• I would’ve said it last week, but didn’t want to out of privacy but Metriximor and Banyough got married IRL a couple of weeks ago! Congratulations to them!

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Poll of the Week

Winterbourne Castle among the cloudy skies at night in the far north. (cr: Princess__Bow)

Last week, we had 57 responses to the questions.

World Wonders, Part 4

You know the drill with World Wonders, let’s get it over with:

Not that many people jumped at Adria or the Olympic Area as world wonders compared to something like Pavia, even though I’d definitely consider them both to be pretty incredible in their own rights. Of course people hopped on the Notch Face as a world wonder, but I thought this would be a joke entry I included at the last minute.

Lusitania and Tricon are places that I personally consider really amazing, but didn’t really seem to resonate with a lot of people when I included it. This time, I did include sample pictures so people know what I’m talking about.

Here’s the current standings for the top 12 world wonders, with the newest entries highlighted in blue:

Dead Nation Impact

The next question was about how much impact dead or dormant nations had within the server, and which ones had the most impact on the server today.

This was a question that was posed by TheJmqn when I asked for stuff in discord.

A lot of the nations picked were nations that played a major part in shaping the server as it is today, which is the soft way of saying “these are the losers of the major wars on the server.” Both statements however, are not incorrect, because they are pretty much the reasons why the server is the way it is, because they got defeated by a major world power (in some way or another).

To balance it out, I tried to include nations which had a more cultural impact on the server, like Gensokyo, Arsenio, Cortesia, or Lusitania, but their footprints are much smaller, which may be why you don’t see as many responses as you see for the others.

Nation Reputation

The final question was Does nation reputation actually matter, why or why not?

This was a question that was suggested by Highboy from Volterra, so thanks to him for that! I believe when he gave this question, it was a matter of hearing opinions who don’t have as strong of a voice in the political landscape.

The overwhelming response to this question was pretty much:

Yes, and…

The answers afterwards, definitely changed depending on your viewpoint:

I’d say so. Even a heavily militarized and hegemonic power needs to have a solid reputation behind that military and their diplomacy … and for any power not looking for a strict military hegemony, then cultural and diplomatic reputation are extremely important for securing wealth and significance to guarantee their safety.

There’s a lot more to this specific response, but in general, I do agree. With every nation having their own reputation there needs to be some specific niche in doing so. This response eventually talks about Estalia, and Pavia/Mercutio in particular for the two examples, and both are pretty good. I’m really sorry that I’m grading this like an essay, but you’re right since both military and cultural reputation matter in their own respects on this server.

There’s a line where it doesn’t matter. If you are powerful enough, it doesn’t (really this is only estalia). For everyone else, I’d say yes it does. Pavia with a bad rep would be dead. Nara with a bad rep would have succumbed to wars. Hell, even Icenia for as powerful as it is would have fallen if it didn’t have a good enough rep to get allies willing to rebuild it so many times and go into the shit-pit with it as people fuck around.

As a somewhat foil to the first answer, this is true as well, but Nara and Icenia have both had drama and relatively negative reception in some right as well. Today, most nations have a generally good reputation so it’s not as a big a deal to many…

It’s kinda like branding. A good brand can incentivise trade or activity while a bad brand can push other states against you and feel threatened by your presence.

personal rep matters more than overall nation rep imo. if you’re in a shitty nation, but are a decent person, you’ll be fine.

This is something that we’ve seen argued a couple times, especially for “buildfriends” in a “shitty nation”, most notably TolypeVelleda in several nations. It’s arguable whether this is correct, but personal reputation has some worth. I mean believe me, this newsletter is basically built on my oldfriend reputation. But people’s reputation definitely plays a part — I think national is more important on a global scale, but personal reputation is good for others.

I think national reputation matters in terms of being considered trustworthy, because negotiations always break down if every interaction is assumed to be in bad faith.

National reputation is so important to negotiations because if you keep screwing people over then it’s not very likely that you’re going to get a good settlement or negotiate in good faith. We sort of saw that in the last few major wars, so at least it’s a good indicator. Definitely more of a causation then correlation here though.

no because if nation is a shithole but their powerful it dosent matter

I wonder who this is…

Vote Now!

For wonders questions, here’s an album of the wonders up for vote this week. We’re on bracket 5/9.

You can probably tell I wanted fun questions this time around.

Anticipation Cry for Help

A postcard from Exyria from the Lyrean Commonwealth Bureau of Tourism. (cr: Seekinq)

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter!

I want to give a huge shoutout to… RedDevel, Tophat, TheJmqn, Highboy, Xcios, Asgeir, Forged (for helping me out of the Icenia pit), ArtificialDriver, BritishWanderer, Raeders, Motoko_Kusanagi, SoundTech, Kingstell, Highroll, DockerImage and probably many, many others for some assistance or another with this week’s newsletter!

While I don’t have anything special cooked up for next week’s anniversary newsletter, I do want to thank everyone for reading through long intermissions and slow news weeks, and I’m so happy that all of you are supporting the newsletter after nearly two years of publishing.

Thanks all, and as always…

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