CivWiki Monday Newsletter for August 7, 2023
Good morning and happy August from New England!
It’s nice that I had a lot of badgering this week from everyone (and I really do mean badgering in a nice way) as there were a lot of small little things this week I could easily mess up or get wrong. Still, definitely could be worse for wear.
Thanks for all the corrections this past week. I wasn’t able to publish corrections last week within the day due to mental health problems but it should be fixed soon^TM.
Are we ready for the news?
Featured
Featured Image
This week’s features image is a lovely sunset overlooking the Imperial Japanese areas of Shiroyama. Taken by twooearly, it’s probably one of the best renders of Nara we’ve seen in quite a while (let alone CivMC). The rest of the images in his album all highlight the area, and show off their distinctive style that they’ve mastered within the past year. This is only one section of the city and I can’t wait to see more next time I come!
Featured Article
The United Provinces of the Plus-Plus, commonly abbreviated U3P, was a military and economic alliance during Civcraft 2.0. Consisting of Blackcrown, New Danzilona, Little Latvia, Loveshack, and Holy Tree, among others, the countries formed the alliance due to continued raids and desire for further cooperation in the quadrant. Additionally, they were able to give protectorate status to other nations who were not in the quadrant. Compared to other alliances at the time, the U3P had a relatively concrete structure, with an elected senate and secretary general, and reasonable joining policies. Additionally, they were able to provide bastions, XP access, snitches, nether portal access and other various late-game services to their alliances.
The U3P was one of the major Alliances in Civcraft 2.0, and made agreements with the NEA and Prussia, among others. Despite this, the alliance had not been involved in most of the major wars, although international agreements would be broken upon the breakout of the Riverford War. In later iterations, the U3P became the main group for founding the Volantian Federation in Civcraft 3.0, and Provincia in CivClassic.
This week’s featured article image is, unsurprisingly, the flag of the U3P.
The News
A courtyard inside Imperia, the capital.
Imperial Federation Craziness
I haven’t paid much attention to the country the past few weeks because I never really reached out too much into IF affairs, but there were quite a few things going behind the scenes that became concerning:
May I indulge anyone in this post theme?
- Political problems arose during the previous week as several issues arose at an inopportune time:
- Chancellor King_Cupar’s government and Unionist Party were drafting a new constitution throughout July. It was intended to based on active participation rather than the previous democratic system in the current constitution, but it received mixed feedback with concerns over federalism and states rights since its proposal in mid-July.
- While this happened, issues continued to pile up, including wars between the UTSS and Thoria, along with the Anor Lando X situation (we’re getting to it!) throughout late July.
- These issues started to come to a head this week, as Parliamentary elections were expected to lapse in the middle of the week.
- The week started pretty innocently with the UTSS (for some reason marked in this post as Southseasia) was granted independence on August 1 following desires to manage their own laws and allow further expansion of their territory. What wasn’t seen however, was that Freeport, led by Southw3st, also left. I can’t find proof of this, but it’s commonly cited in the Imperial Federation chat.
- In reality leaders from both nations cited continued issues within the government and their handling of international conflicts, particularly with their handling of the Thoria raids.
- On August 2, JoelThaTroll made an opening claim for his trial and pleading not guilty to an attempted coup, claiming they acted on haste without proof of further actions. (If you do remember from last week’s issue, the IF pearled people over a discord message leak.)
- Despite this, the week continued with Anor Lando X getting raided by Imperial Federation officials. Although the posts did not contain snitch information, most government officials did not deny their involvement in the raids.
- Why they did this, I actually don’t know, but messages that I received implied they were deserving of it due to the possible coup.
- Within the Imperial Federation, King Jalhf (the actual king of the IF) pressed to reinstate parliamentary elections or lengthen terms, with frustration from the government eventually resolving to temporarily wait until a new constitution was passed.
- However, JoelThaTroll relayed DMs supposing collusion from the government (however to me, this really doesn’t look like this is the case). In fact, I think this DM makes me even more confused…
- Frustration regarding the leak pushed Sankara to post Grenada’s secession from the IF on August 5.
- ComradeSankara was angered over government conduct that “violate[d] a litany of IF federal laws, and treaty obligations to our (former) allies,” putting blame on the Chancellor and Cabinet.
- The post was coupled by a notification from dcruzy in the IF’s #tweets channel that of much of the country being split up in two; the northern half with the northern portions of the IF, including Imperia forming Asgard, and most of the lower sections, which include Vermont, Gotland and some of Regentsburgh forming the state of Vermont.
- Dcruzy (and in private, King_Cupar) has stated that Asgard split due to differences on active contributions to political power in the country, as well as internal government conflict over continued issues.
- The government has also stated that due to the Imperial Federation’s breakup, they will also end their participation in the BUILD alliance.
- This however, was not as it seemed as Vermont, Gotland, and Surmadri, all seceding later on their own accord after dcruzy’s announcements.
- It turned out that several leaders of those nations were not informed of the mass secessions prior and didn’t consent to becoming their own nation.
- Please note however, that despite political problems, separation has been generally amicable. Some states are continuing internal discussion for what the IF region could be in the future.
- These actions leave North Africa, Nalora and Godhaven, among others, as the final states left in the Imperial Federation. Some of these nations are still considering routes for independence.
Please note that this was heavily summarized from a general chat, and five separate DMs, for simplicity. And it still looks like bad writing after editing it a hundred times.
Just something I thought was funny, if we’re talking about the constitution so much, the constitution says that Imperia, the capital cannot secede (§7.2, §10.1.A), and it seceded, so therefore it makes Asgard’s creation/secession unconstitutional. Although, most of the secessions were generally unconstitutional anyway as it did not go through the parliament procedure (§7.2). I guess, it doesn’t really matter since this constitution was supposedly worthless anyway.
Suffice it to say, I’m not entirely sure the Olympics are gonna happen this month.
Happenings Around Civ
The Pampang District in L-City, alongside is various shops with a peek at the banyough statue in the back.
Ok, so this is the normal news section that you were expecting, I’m pretty sure.
- Over the past week, Pavian Emperor ArtificialDriver I ceded his power to the public, as the country transitions back to a democracy:
- Transylvania’s pillager, Jeffrey was murdered. Fs in the chat.
- Icenia elected its July senate this week, with Kingstell, Seared, Anvil, Slowlyfunny and Drekamor becoming senators. An analysis of the election, debate topics and others was posted as well.
- A correction of last week that is related to the IF stuff but doesn’t matter so much — RiseUndead was supposedly pearled by Imperial Federation officials and given to Transylvania.
- Nara held a Creative Writing night to fill the library with good work! They eventually posted that around 10 new works will be available in the Shiroyama library soon. I was there in the VC to write, but not necessarily write creatively…
- Mount Augusta has made some territorial changes, with them taking charge of the CDM portal, relinquishing New Jersey as a territory, and entering into an alliance with Amicitia. Amicitia’s really getting around, wow!
- Meracydia ramped up for its most recent judge election with a debate between candidates Ollie and Crasy. Crossposted from the Meracydian Mouthpiece.
- Aeros and Amicitia announced a declaration of friendship between their two nations. So what, we playing Civ VI now?
- Icarus announced its separation from Mercutio and return to form as a new country, along with areas of Khione and the former town and vault of the Temporal Isles.
- I completely forgot last week that Suramir has a brand new Wordbank shop that sells unique wordbanks
Metagame Highlights
- Paddington is planning on loading map data for the online map to be updated, and is looking for suggestions and places to rerender.
- A post was made as a public appeal for Carter_t23 however it was quickly revealed that:
- Something about Otonabee borders and sovereignty? Idk man, right now it’s more of a state than several others in its region
- Christopherson Christopher Pie is creating a new podcast for Civ called CivTown, with in-depth interviews and segments with renowned and/or infamous Civ players.
- VilyanZ has updated the stupid amount of rails on CivMC on CivMap.
- Solitaire posted a new r/mcservers ad for CivMC, it’s the top of the week!
- Lowtierloot thanks everyone for working on Civ. I’m kinda glad I share that sentiment.
- We’ve recently updated the CivWiki homepage after we realized there are now only three active Civ servers, which actually means there is only one server on this list that this newsletter reports on.
The Fun Stuff
The City of England in SPQR, taken by butter_villager.
Striking Screenshots
So everyone decided to post their builds this week.
- Can’t not highlight these amazing screenshots of Shiroyama
- Man, I just like Amicitia is building this cozy pub
- You know, I just want to highlight that Icenia and Estalia made a nice duck for Walkers
- Meracydia posts a rainy day but their statue is still looking good
- Pavia is putting more content on the wall with comparison posts of remarkable areas from one year ago and now
- Butter_villager visited City of England in the SPQR and its towers look really striking. Here’s an album of theirs here. I’ve gotta highlight this sometime…
- Of course, someone will yell at me if I don’t include the Transylvania build so here it is, the AID building
- Meanwhile Mark_Antony has made a faithful reconstruction of the Roman Colosseum, with below ground maze and all
- Lambat designs are getting out of control and MaybeGravy is going all out in Pampang
- Owain_X’s new Deepslate Isles tower has reached its full height
- Nara has a wonderful little hut on Embassy Beach in Mercutio
Cool Content
- Pissdog map art is now widely available in Altepetl, Yoahtl! I can’t wait to piss on pissdog (and maybe pissdog can piss on the admins, wow I wonder if this post will be removed from the sub for me saying piss so many times)
- Alexkyry gets a new profile picture from butter_villager
- I want to get over my addiction of pastel-colored maps but dammit this one of SPQR is too good to cold turkey
- jbblocker has a new gif of the Gang Shi flag
- Janet finally gets up here not because of Icenia and Icarus at the ballot box, but fuzzy MtA is sufficiently good and I was mildly entertained
- This never got out of the CivWiki discord but I want to comment Zeldrin for creating a nice little icon design using assets from Civtoria3
- The Joja Brewery Texture Pack has been updated again with more brews!
Manic Memes
- Is someone talking about Southeastern European international activities within the broad range of the years of the common era one thousand nine hundred and ninety one and one thousand nine hundred and ninety two in this fair messaging application?
- iOminous have brought incredibly invasive British tabloids over to Civ, which has me shocked and also very excited. Can’t wait for this to be daily and clog the subreddit
- There were a lot of Ghas news this week but I liked number 9 because the layout is different — but also cat
- r/wholesomememes, from one user with the letters “iku” in their name to another
- I have completely neglected to say that Hey is no longer a fake nation-ad, but a REAL nation. Actually on second thought, I may need to move this to the Based: category…
- Finally! Sirboss war critique with breaking bad
- Hmm, it looks like I left some important information out of the Imperial Federation section, let me just copy paste that here real quick…
- Meanwhile, “binchymonkey” posted their experiences on Civ on the Federation following continued harassment from the government, over territory and other crimes while being sexually turned on to Hg_80
- Ah… I see that’s why I didn’t put it up there.
- Me when I look at any Civ drama
- Gang Shi is creating the sequel to HBO with Garry’s Mod
Irrelevant Non-Civ Blabber
I just want to say for reasons completely unrelated to the newsletter this week, I was mentally boomed for reasons out of my control. Struggles with mental health are no joke, and it really took a toll on me last week. If you need time away from Civ, just walk away from Civ! Write a journal, make some art, write a fanfic, watch/play baseball, watch/play Barbie, watch/play Oppenheimer, watch/play Pikmin, do something just to take your mind off it, because god knows that this game can tank on your mental. Who knows, you might even just escape.
- Baseball unicorn Shohei Ohtani pitches five innings, steals a base, and hits his 40th home run of the season on the same night — as the Angels lose after a 9th inning grand slam by rookie Cade Marlowe. Shohei has once again done a feat never done since Tungsten Arm O’Doyle in 1918.
- I also went to a baseball game this week…but it was a blowout. Find me in this TV broadcast! Spoiler: you will actually be unable to as I actually didn’t sit in the section that it’s pointing at.
- If you like Jet Lag: The Game and want to watch something that’s 5% of the budget, here’s Miles In Transit’s The Great Race to New York (and back!) If you’re not a transit nerd like me, here’s him being interviewed by another transit nerd, but British!
- Please play Pikmin 4, it is really good. I’m serious, please do.
- If for some reason, you play modpacks lower than 1.12 on multiplayer, you may want to take a look at this remote code execution bug.
Pernicious Poll of the Week
I’m glad that people like the poll as it gives you some interactivity instead of just reading news every week. Don’t worry, no personal data nor association is collected at all. Speaking of which I need to release source code for this for you to trust me…
We had 72 unique responses to the poll last week.
The first question was Do you like reading Non-Civ Content?
It’s pretty mixed about whether people even like reading this section but it’s still pretty good, maybe it’s just random escapism for some people. I think people just don’t like baseball, which is a crying shame.
Our second question was Could a UN work in today’s Civ?
I choose to think that this is actually the correct take by most people — CivUN is actually possible despite everyone who berates it, however, there needs to be incredibly major modifications for anything to work.
Time to Vote!
This week’s poll has a common thread: advertising!
I purposely try to limit choices, without an “Other” field so I can make graphs quicker, but if you’ve got more opinions on advertising, feel free to comment on the reddit posts!
Walkers Cry for Help
A “Walkers” statue constructed by Xcios, ShadySauce, and AnimeReviewer.
Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter! Thanks to Jalhf, King_Cupar, dcruzy, Mat_potato_king, and ComradeSankara for providing information for this week, and RedDevel, Gjum and BritishWanderer for general support.
If you’d like to help make the newsletter the “best” it can be…
- Slide into my DMs at
@specificlanguageif there are any pressing news for next week you’d like to report. Please don’t spam my inbox with joke news though, I won’t like that. - The other #1 way to get into the newsletter is to post your crap on the subreddit or discord. The reason that so much stuff is in the newsletter this week is because people actually post news, content, builds, and so much more publicly, which will get traction and make it more likelier to see it.
If you’d like to actually help me to make the newsletter though…
- Write a featured article! You get to see your content written in the newsletter, about a topic of Civ history. I’ve personally relaxed the requirements in recent weeks, so events from the beginning of CivMC (~1 year prior to today) are now eligible for featured article status.
- If a featured article isn’t for you, an op-ed might be better suited. You can write about your experiences and long (or short) histories or opinions on the state of Civ, and it’ll be published here. If you’re interested, message me
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I believe that’s about it, and I can’t wait to argue with all of you in the comments! Until next Monday…