CivWiki Monday Newsletter for September 4, 2023
Good morning and happy Labor Day from New England!
I hope everyone’s had a good time with summer, because it’s pretty much over now. I spent the most of it yesterday with friends so that’s why I didn’t quite publish it on time this week. Imagine spending time with friends and touching grass, you know?
Alright then, enough about my life, who’s ready for some news?
Featured
Featured Image
This week’s featured image is Icenia City. It’s only taken one short month after the last war for the country to completely rebound in activity, and even though this screenshot probably looks the same as when I last highlighted them, you’ll see there are a few new buildings in this render by Drekamor. They’ve been doing a lot of work within the country and their revival, once again, has been nothing short of astonishing. Looking forward to seeing another image of Icenia that isn’t this view!
Featured Article
Mount September was a democratic nation on CivClassic, founded as a spiritual successor to Mount Augusta. Created following the latter’s move to CivRealms, the country aimed to preserve the culture of Augusta as a new country. Founded to the east of the original city, the country quickly grew with a new voter tree and mall, and within a year had a thriving political system with a Mayor, Judges, and Cupboard (akin to a Cabinet). The country also participated in the Augustan Federation, a loose alliance of all the nations within Mount Augusta’s sphere of influence in order for better cooperation in the region, as well as maintaining relationships to close allies in Gabon and Lusitania.
Their political system lent itself numerous conflicts; continued spits with South Augusta leader TheOrangeWizard were common. The Mount September Ice Road Conflict sprouted from issues with the UDF, who set off alarms near its bunker. However, the country had a weirder, laidback sense of culture. Although events like the Lunar Near Year occurred in the country, the “septem” currency, the first PacStatue, and pictures of founder Squareblob’s profile image were common areas of foolery. CivMC’s iteration of Mount Augusta was set to be a Septembrian successor, however, its main figureheads were not reelected after its early days. (Full article…)
A render of Mount September from its northern waterfront, by Jasonbord.
The News
A sweeping view of the Duchy of Lugano, from Aetherix.
Happenings Around Civ
- Admins announced there would be a 50% ore boost weekend!. Wait, what are you doing reading this, go to the mines you peons!
- On a semi-related note, the Monument Group opened up a debris exchange on top of their numerous exchanges so far
- The Monument Group also released their August 2023 financial statement.
- For some reason, people found Asgard’s recruitment post openly advertising their nation going to war.
- Now, what people probably missed is that this was posted about 9 days before people discovered it, which roughly tracks back to Asgard’s split and their negotiations with the Imperial Federation — after the secession and when most things seemed to be resolved.
- This has raised quite a few questions about the reason of openly warmongering for recruitment on a subreddit. Nearly everyone from Asgard just said in response “Bro it’s just an ad”. So I guess nobody will know the true nature of Asgard’s responses because I guess Ghas News is the real news source for the country now
- To be clear, I’m entirely convinced that negotiations between Asgard and the Imperial Federation are being done in good faith, it’s just that this spit of drama just happened to be found last week by Zhirall.
- Meanwhile, the Imperial Federation continues to hang on with a settlement from Chancellor ImmediateDescent, and is glad that the country continues to move on and unified going forward.
- Icarus announced its union with Icenia, making it the country’s first territorial gain since the Butternut-SEC War.
- Icenia also elected Anvil, JuniorTide, Seared, Drekamor, and Forged as their newest Senate, with Seared once again being appointed Speaker.
- Warmia continues its expansions with its annexation of Lonnik, however once again seems to be blind to the fact that nobody really wants them to claim this much land for another nation center
- Pavian Archduke CedarValiant established three national parks on the east coast of their nation
- They also brought back Dice Days, where CedarValiant survived his first one. Can’t wait for Pavia to embrace virtual manslaughter again!
- He also awarded a knighthood for BradoTomato in SPQR upon discovery of an exploit in the Pavia system for social excellence.
- Amicitia introduces the Sapphire Wave, which includes TDavis23 being elected as the country’s new chancellor, as well as following up a possible robbery from Mount Augusta.
- The country also inducted Val as a Knight of Amicitia in a ceremony this past weekend. Unfortunately I couldn’t go despite being invited because I had real life things to do.
- Pope Lucius I was elected to succeed Benedictus I following the end of the latter’s term. Major changes are expected to occur after concurrent retirements happened following his ascendance.
Metagame Highlights
- CivMC’s ore boost weekend also comes with a few changes, with Amethyst spawning from Smooth Basalt, as well as Smooth Basalt and Prismarine spawning ores as normal from before.
- Admins also had several reports of buggy portals, and urged users to use cobwebs to lower players into the portal to make detection as easy as possible
- This post only emphasizes the need for a list of newfriend nations — and no, don’t recruit me to do it
- Solitaire posted a plea on his experiences when advertising, and recommends certain avenues for people to post content on
- Golden Nations launched their Open Beta for their upcoming Civ-styled server this past weekend.
The Fun Stuff
AprilMinty’s new house in Meracydia.
Builds
- Shapha’s second edition of Vault Science is showing off Pavia’s proposed vault
- Kaota has opened a market
- Ghas gets hit by a horsefly
- Well, it’s Icenia from Lake Michigan, what else do you want me to say
- SuperRyan6000 gives us a look at Brunsvik Cathedral
- I know this is literally just a square right now but at least the design of Isle 101 is doing fine
- Aetherix continues his tear of renders with this one of the Duchy of Lugano)
- Meracydia is still constructing new things, but now taking full advantage of their countryside
- MaybeGravy creates a funeral for Jimmy Buffet on (where other than) Margaritaville
Multimedia Projects
- Butter_villager shows off their own profile picture
- Also nice mural from them even though if I don’t get the joke
- IceBoy shows off the first civballs on the upcoming Civball map of the world
- Additionally, new Civballs (that have yet to be added to the map) include Truidencia, Nalora, Ghasland, Transylvania, Warmia, the Pride Isles, and Volterra.
- Janet blackquill posted a comic about their early experiences on Civ, expressing thanks to several nations for their hospitality.
- On the slightly less wholesome side, she also made a Civball animation of the war
Memes
- Dr_Bacon_Hair posted a “journal” that’s not formatted like one
- I see primary colors plus a stick
- This is a joke referring to another post that King_Cupar made to recruit newfriends, wow, I wouldn’t have gotten the joke if it wasn’t for that!
- These jokes are getting less understandable by the day
- Like come on now, I think Chris is just schizo posting
- OreStraya is now just Straya
Non-Civ Content
Sports Corner
- In baseball this week, Mets DH and noted slowpoke Daniel Vogelbach attempts to stretch a single to a double against the (now) first place Seattle Mariners. This isn’t going to end well.
- Hey everyone, Xeno here with your brand new (Real) Football Bulletpoint of the Week^TM! The NFL season hasn’t started yet, but college football did this week and it’s already been wild
- #17 TCU were favored by over 20 points at home against a Colorado team that only had 1 win last year, while TCU played in the National Championship less than 8 months ago
- Logically then, Colorado beats TCU 45-42 behind a Quarterback performance from Deion Sander’s son Shedeur, who threw for a school-record 510 yards and 4 TDs with 0 INTs. I guess Coach Prime’s luggage really was Louis.
- As a reminder, this week is your last week to sign up for Meracydia NFL Pick’ems!
Everything Else
- Jimmy Buffet died, please press the “Margarita” button to pay respects
- Idk man, Labor Day weekend was fun for most people. Hope you touched grass this weekend for the nice weather
- Damn, this is a good peanut butter and jelly recipe (although I am lying because I can never have a PB&J)
Poll of the Week
We got 59 responses this previous week. I’m trying to find wide appeal polls, but sometimes it can be hard, like this week.
For those unaware, in previous iterations, alts were pretty much one of the mainstays on Civ. CivMC was going to have alts but quietly dropped it from the plan following its busy launch. It’s sort of reflected here, although the common solutions to bring back alts are still gaining traction, albeit with the major need for easier resolution between multi-account bans.
This one’s a little bit more contentious of a topic considering that botting is a divisive subject, with those in favor of bots being very in favor of bots, but causing a lot of issues with accessibility for those not in the botting scene. There have been efforts to do so, but unless you’re around other people who bot it’s also an accessibility problem. It’ll continue to do so until we figure out an amicable solution for everyonel.
That being said, I agree about making modded Civ.
I was out this week so I guess there’s no poll. Whoops!
Labour Day Cry for Help
A frame from janet_blackquill’s “What I Love” Civball comic. Wait a minute…
Well, thanks for reading this week. Not that I’m going to give a long cry for help because I gotta go and do stuff but here’s a few things you could do:
- If you’d like to write a featured article (I am running out of them!!!), please contact me
@specificlanguageon discord or fill out this easy form and I will get back to you as soon as I am available and/or not distracted. - Otherwise, my DMs are open if you want to see something on the newsletter, whether a news feature, op-ed, or a regular feature. (That being said, I don’t run advertisements on the newsletter anymore.)
For those who faithfully follow CivWiki, I’ll put the normal info on the front page later today, I don’t quite have it ready yet.
Otherwise, thanks for reading, and until next time,