CivWiki Newsletter for September 2, 2024

Good morning and happy Labor Day from the Pacific Northwest!

That is, unless you’re not American, then happy September. How boring of an introduction for you.

This week has been sort of a whirlwind with lots of crazy things happening all around the server. That’s not to say the next month isn’t going to be quiet either, there’s quite a few things lined up for the next couple weeks as well.

I would usually have more things to say but I don’t, I think it’s just time to get straight to the news!

Featured

Featured Image

This week’s featured image is one that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time: Withervale! One of the standouts of new countries this summer, they blazed a trail throughout the Civ channels, with a combination of both large, futuristic modern builds along with more rustic abodes and classical capitols all throughout the country. It’s definitely made a name for itself, now partnering with Groveheart to become the Great Western Bay. I had such a blast taking pictures around the town, I can’t wait to see more builds completed!

Featured Article

This week’s featured article was written by Antares/realmichael.

The Imperial Federation Secession Crisis was a protracted civil conflict involving the near-collapse of the Imperial Federation on CivMC, lasting primarily in August 2023. Emerging as a consequence of what were seen as undemocratic tactics by IF Chancellor King_Cupar in his effort to centralize the federation under a new meritocratic constitutional order, the crisis led to several months of political confusion and turmoil within Deluvia and the near-collapse of the IF. Efforts to overturn the initial constitution of the IF led first to the secession of the CCTT and Pride Isles. The failure of a constitutional convention and the controversial delay of IF elections was ultimately led to another round of secessions led by Southseasia and Granada, directly preceding Cupar’s secession of the state of Asgard, which contained the capital of the IF, Imperia.

The Imperial Federation’s activity was revived after a several month recovery effort, under the leadership of a small group of committed restorationists. The legacy of the Succession Crisis continues to be felt today in the Imperial Federation and in wider Deluvia, with King_Cupar’s once positive reputation within the IF tarnished by his involvement. The crisis is often viewed in the IF as the nation’s darkest period, with secessionist movements in the IF today seen as controversial due to the crisis’ legacy.

This week’s featured image is Imperia, the former capital of the Imperial Federation (that seceded with Asgard).

This Week In Civ

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The News

Ok, Yoahtl, I’ll give you a picture… it’s the Pigeon Square statue within Altepetl. I’m lucky to still have visitor access!

Long News Sections

• Varkanos posted that Exyrian raiders (along with sadchamp) were raiding old Mount Augusta.
  • As a reminder, Mount Augusta moved locations north near the Lyrean Sea, however retained their old city’s claim in north Alenarith.
  • According to Varkanos’ post, the raiders raided several properties within the area. While Spenduh claimed they returned all items, Varkanos stated that many valuables were still missing.
  • There were comments were supportive of returning the raid, and others who were more dismissive of enforcing raiding an inactive territory.
  • Regardless of people’s stance on the moral ambiguity of raiding Mount Augusta, the raiding issue was resolved quickly with all items returned and reparations paid.
• Hateno Village pearled Coolchacha97 on Friday after he threatened to pearl onedart, a citizen of Hateno, for trespassing on the Thanatos bunker.
  • In response, several players including dredd_kiji and others harrassed Coolchacha around Thanatos’ bunker with minor breaking of chests. Much of this was broadcast within the CivMC voice chat.
  • The following day, after Coolchacha built an obsidian attack structure and pinging snitches around the country’s border, they pearled him in response. He alleges that he din do nuffin.
  • The country has since released him after they promised they would protect Thanatos’ land. Hateno was able to prevent Dredd_kiji and DockerImage from infringing on Thanatos territory, however in future attempts they realized it would be more reasonable for Coolchacha to defend his territory himself.
  • However, he did not go off lightly as he received a complete ban from Hateno lands.
• Salerno banned Thanis0077 from the country, and were seeking his pearl previously.
  • The country says that they was involved in pearling within the country, violating a policy of no bounty hunting within the country, as well as bans on travel into the country as well.
  • Salerno was helping aid a player out of the quadrant when Thanis appeared in the country and killed him — however it is generally unclear to me why he would do so.
  • Although they originally placed a travel ban on all Alcantarans, they lifted the ban shortly after. Khalkedonia similarly banned players from Alcantara from entering their territory.
  • Alcantara (at least to my knowledge) have not released a statement regarding this issue quite yet, but are generally disappointed in Thanis’ conduct.

Around the Server

If you frequently publish news but your nation doesn’t appear here, it’s because I’ve hit the Discord server limit (once again). Maybe it’s time to bite the bullet and pay for Nitro…

• Pavia held the Farley War as promised but Icenia kinda sorta forgot to show up. As a result, the country held a 1v1 Farley War PvP bracket instead!
• Monument Bank opened a bank branch in Bedford, focused on being a specialized center for newfriends to receive and deposit diamonds easily.
• Salerno brokered an alliance with Vanani, a new nation headed by Ishir_. They committed to mutual defense, shared economic development and network construction, among many other points.
• Meanwhile, Hateno and Mount Augusta signed a non-aggression pact as the two have started to become close as neighbors.
• Early this week, Ducky19 raided a storage unit in Amicitia with meenos pearling him.
• CapianColton announced a ban on Rakija, hewsheletta, and MeatsThief after breaking the terms of an agreement on the island. Their bans were lifted following their payment of reparations.
• Gally was announced as the winner of both Icenian of the Month as well as Engineer of the Month in Icenia.
• Meanwhile, Icenia had its elections for the September senate, however due to a certain something… official results have not been certified yet.
• Forged really did ping everyone for an Accran build night, but then told everyone to bring your own blocks. Huh.
• Seto won the election for September Tribune in SPQR.
• Bronnakus stepped back from his role as Daimyo of Shiroyama, with Swordmaster taking his place for the time being.
• Reffelruz announced CivMC’s first musical, Melonia. I’ve been hearing about this for literal years so it’s incredible that it’s finally a reality.
• In a surprising turn of events, I’ve been named NordCo’s CEO while VilyanZ is currently banned for stuff. So get ready to see constant Newsletter and NordCo ads!

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Metagame Highlights

Monument Bank’s bank branch in Bedford — curiously, the first one in Pavia despite originating in the country (cr: BritishWanderer).

• Stoomer is organizing the Civball map of the world for this year, so get your balls ready! (pun intended)
• August’s alliance madness chart gets released, with each more version just looking more and more like Mr. Blobby
  • For the record, I also did not post the copypasta comment first, that goes to SandFalls.
• I find it wholesome that a rail got fixed very quickly, but I also find it quite sad that we have to do this in order to raise potential rail breakage issues.
• A deleted poll had people asking what mod loader people use. I don’t know why it got deleted but I saw it…
  • I have also updated the unofficial mods list to start containing 1.21 mods, but I believe that the version is so new that mods have not had the chance to catch up to this version yet.
• CivCubed admin Janet Blackquill released some information about their Rest mechanic, rewarding players for those who would log off.
• We recently promoted Tybug to Bureaucrat on CivWiki (something I think was long overdue), so now you can ask him questions about CivWiki as well!

Calendar

Guys, I know things happen on Civ, and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of it all. Message me if you’ve got an event, it’s basically free publicity and inflates your numbers (hopefully)

• Some days at 11am PST/2pm EST/18:00 UTC - Amazing Civ Poker - Enthusiasm for poker is sort of waning, but I really hope more poker games happen! It’s fun to gamble small amounts of diamonds.
• September 7, 10am PST/1pm EST/17:00 UTC - Bunkies in the Imperial Federation discord, at this rate it’s a weekly occurrence to practice your Civ bunker defense/attack skills.
• September 7, 12pm PST/3pm EST/19:00 UTC - Bob’s Auction House is auctioning off another wide variety of new materials! Join their discord for more information (hopefully)
• September 8 - Pavia & the Monument Group is remembering Queen Elizabeth II with a memorial map-art and encourages everyone to wear an armor trim their honor.
• September 13 - 14 - Roman Triumph and Games, a celebration of Roman culture and longevity along with fun, lighthearted games!
• September 17, 2pm PST/5pm EST/21:00 UTC - The Commonwealth is doing an on-foot “road trip” across the map ahead of their appearance at the Yoahtl Olympics!
• September 20 - 28 - Yoahtl Olympics are still scheduled, make sure you sign up for events prior to September 18.

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The Fun Stuff

Golden Hour in San Rafael, in the Imperial Federation (cr: PiersGaveston).

Builds

• Shaders always makes Golden Hour look so impressive, especially with these orange roofs in San Rafael, Karydia Imperial (cr: PiersGaveston)
• Pavia does it again with their new bank branch in Bedford (cr: BritishWanderer)
• I want to say this is Windermere in Pavia but I can bet I’m wrong, the lighting on this picture goes hard (cr: Ansgard)
• This picture of Yoahtl is from like several weeks ago but I’m sure the pigeon doesn’t look very much different today (cr: me)
• It’s only a little bit rainy looking at the jungle integrated skyline in Commonwealth (cr: IceyzYT)
• A little interior decorating with the Imperial Federation’s upgraded train station in New Callisto (cr: Bestfiretop)

Cool Content

• Really appreciate independent news sources around Civ, including the Salerno Times’ first edition on news within the country. Spoilers: they really produce a lot of news
• jbblocker says he wants to play cards, come on, when is poker happening (cr: Nekroz09, obligatory Upvote Art)
• There was actually a post from jbblocker that also had good art, however it got deleted. Is he banned?
• There was also a Sloth gif that I also cannot find anymore but I swear I saw earlier this week that was high quality. Literal art censorship smh my head, mods

Non-Civ Content

• I don’t know how it’s possible where the Mariners face the Angels and lose the series. The season is dead, go next. I’m so sad
• My weekend’s highlight was heading out to Bainbridge Island, located a ferry away, half an hour west of Seattle across Puget Sound. Look at this view!
• ChrisChrispie, if you read down this far, congrats on the engagement, please get off Civ and be with your fiancee thanks

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Poll of the Week

Verdant Valley from the top of the Great Tree in Commonwealth. It’s a little rainy, sorry. (cr: IceyzYT)

Last week, we had 56 responses.

Newsletter Sections

This newsletter usually takes a long time to read with many sections not being critical to the Civ landscape. I did want to see where people actually read so I know what to focus on.

As expected, people always read the news, that’s like, the whole point. But I try to add a bunch of variety to lighten up these hard news pieces, which is why I’m very glad that people do read the Fun Stuff and Poll writeups, all 37 of you reading this section right now.

Features, admittedly, have sort of suffered as it’s essentially just a lookback on Civ in the past. It’s hard to find new kinds of pieces to improve on this section, but I think it’s important to highlight Civ’s incredible legacy.

I’m glad people still read it because this section is very much a CivWiki highlight section, as well as where all the oldfriends get their nostalgia. But besides making some more eye-catching articles, only thing to really do is make a feature that highlights existing nations (and we’d run out of those relatively quickly).

Of course, all 11 of you who only read the newsletter for solely “Ctrl-F -> Transylvania” will now receive the cone of shame.

Next CivMC Update

The open response question last week was simple: what should CivMC admins focus on next?

Some of the suggestions… backpack (and other stuff too ofc!)

hope admins will try to innovate civ mechanics and change the meta without just outright killing off mechanics

PvP Update, as well as the PvP server that was promised. [It] is long overdue and I’m hoping to finish a plugin that I think many would welcome. (editor’s note: this is a very common sentiment)

Less version updates, more of a focus on features. The reason the update from 1.18.2 was so good was because there was so many features added at once.

Stability. I’m done with rebuilding my farms and updating mods almost daily.

More stuff like fishing and brewing that adds depth to the gameplay on a scale for an individual player. Maybe a cooking update could be a thing (editor’s note: this actually sounds like a good addition)

Real meta changes, or larger content additions

If you haven’t been around for very long, the last two or three major CivMC update cycles have solely been about upgrading the server to the most recent Minecraft version, but that comes at a cost of supplanting the playerbase to upgrade their mods. For those who bot and play regularly, this can be like pulling teeth. This is why most modpacks, for example, pretty much stick to a stable version with lots of mods that are available. Hell, I haven’t even updated my client to 1.21 yet.

Meanwhile, CivMC hasn’t really gotten any new features, cosmetic or otherwise, for quite some time. It’s been really frustrating having had promised these and we’re still waiting with no progress, while gameplay continues to stagnate.

I know the admins are busy (well, most of them are) but Civ (as always) is desperately waiting for a big feature injection that will excite the playerbase once again. Fishing and Brewing were huge additions that made major impact. Are we going to see something like that again?

Well, unless…

Add gun please

Vote Now!

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Instant Promotion Cry for Help

A little bit of a Farley War in Pavia. Maybe not that much (cr: ArtificialDriver).

You know, I think it’s going to be funny next week to continue this joke that I’m the CEO of NordCo as well as the newsletter. Can’t wait for “CivWiki Newsletter for September 9, sponsored by NordCo”

Thanks to VilyanZ, Tophat, Antares, BritishWanderer, Creepi0n, Ahrimanne, iMqd, Spoopin_, Logic_Man, Ishir_, and Varkanos for all contributing to some sort of news portion this week, if they know it or not. Really appreciate all your help!

As always, I’m always looking for help on the newsletter and if you’re willing to pitch in, feel free to message me @specificlanguage (but please don’t spam me). Looking for strong writers and area reporters, as well as Featured Article writers as per usual.

Thanks, and until next week…

EDIT CIVWIKI

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