CivWiki Monday Newsletter

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

CivWiki Newsletter for September 23, 2024

• specificlanguage

Good morning and happy Monday from the Pacific Northwest! oncall hell!

Because of this, this week’s newsletter has been written by several players from the community, and all I really did was organize it for you guys. It’ll be great!

The plan is to have one of these once every five weeks — not that I’m oncall every five weeks (only once every 10-12), but I’m also taking the opportunity to literally take a break and relax a bit more, and give a little bit more people to shine.

Let’s get to the news…

This week’s featured image is a collection of players posing at the Opening Ceremony of Yoahtl’s Olympics. I figured that it would make more sense this week to not highlight the Olympic builds for the main picture, (but of course, I have to) but it would make so much more sense to highlight the amazing community that showed up for the Olympics this time. It’s things like these that make Civ so magical for people, with the wholesome community coming together for stuff like this. A huge thanks to MechanicalRift for taking this picture! I can’t wait to come next weekend.

Featured Article

This week’s extended featured article was written by IntentGames.

The Grand Duchy of Varkonia, founded in July 2018 on CivClassic by Mickale and a group of former citizens of Volterra and SPQR after the Somber War. The state started with a little birchwood hut, which expanded into the Grand Duchy, which included many providences and notable structures, chiefly being the providences of Nevrast, Kaiserreich, and Westmore, and the 125-block tall Tower of Varkanos. Mickale, the Red Duke, developed the government of Varkonia, and created the Senate, who were the main governing body. In their early days, they supported Gabon during the Alpoko-Gabon Crisis leading to Gabon emerging as a Varkonian province. This union, along with the subsequent regional alliance with the United Northern Congress, helped Varkonia reach a better regional standing.

In subsequent years, Varkonia faced shifting alliances and conflicts, notably with Columbia and its membership in the controversial FRIENDS alliance, leading to defense pacts that became strained over time. During the Infinity War, Varkonia focused on advancing its defenses and expanding its vault, while maintaining a neutral position within internal and external tensions, ultimately leading to its withdrawal and the disolving of the UNC after the “Evocator Crisis”.

The country then created a new alliance called the Entente, with the intent for powerful nations to stay neutral in most political conflict. The alliance was tested in many incidents that initially strained ties with Corvus. Following an unsuccessful assault on Laconia’s vault, Varkonia joined the call to arms to defeat Ransackistan, who were funded by Corvus and NATO.

In 2020, Varkonia participated in a major attack on Corvus’ vault, which was found to be in disrepair and to be involved in duping, leading to Corvus’s banning and eventual annexation by Varkonia. Following these events, Varkonia helped defeat Hallow and the HJE, freeing NATO-held pearls and ending the war.

In 2021, Varkonia went on to form the Varkonian Empire with SPQR and Gondolin. By the end of the server, Varkonia re-created the UNC to support smaller nations and balance tensions in the Entente, just as CivClassic ended within the next month. Today, much of Varkonia plays in Volterra on CivMC.

This week’s featured image is the Tower of Varkanos in Varkonia town.

This Week In Civ

On the week of September 23 - 29 in…

2022:

  • The Security Enhancement Coalition, or SEC, has been formed with Icenia, Southshire, Kallos, Arsenio Pact and Cortesia del Mar. Blockchainistan was defeated earlier this week after Estalia and Coalition fighters raided the nation following revelations of Blockchainistan aiding the USA.
  • The Imperial Federation has expanded its borders to include a number of both active and defunct nations in Deluvia; the country expects to hold its first democratic elections next week.
  • Pavia’s and Icenia’s cleanup efforts from the Estalia-Rhode Island War have been swift, with the former constructing a cathedral to celebrate its victory and an upcoming wedding, and the latter resuming their high-volume economic activities within the week.
  • CivMC admins have committed to posting weekly updates for communicating player balance and upcoming changes; this week focusing on combat balance, upcoming advertising efforts, and committing to better transparency of admin decisions. (ed. note: I wonder if weekly updates are here now!)

2023:

  • A build night in Volterra ended up in Nara, and resulted in an incident with nearby Arsenia, involving previous grievances from overlapping bastion territory. Elysian Pact and Gang Shi officials were involved, but all parties were unpearled following the incident.
  • Gang Shi were involved in an combat incident with Cordoba after discovering vulgar structures being built within their territory. SPQR defended the country’s actions. (ed. note: huh, i wonder if this note is relevant today…)
  • Icenia celebrated the return of ChrisChrispie, JuniorTide, and Orinnari after their involvement in the Butternut-SEC War.
  • The Temporal Empire joined the PPIS alliance, along with PhysicsGamer becoming its spokesperson.
  • Amicitia joined the BUILD alliance, along with knighting Magme_Valerio.
  • The Monument Group successfully sold off another 10% of their company, resulting in a 6,000 diamond profit.

The News, Fun Stuff, and More

The pinecone, and overview of the entire Yoahtl Olympic Center. An amazing homage to modern architecture (cr: x1025).

I am not writing a full newsletter because other people are doing some work for me.

More SPQR Followup

You didn’t think we were done with this yet, right? Following last week’s SPQR posts, we have one final action to talk about that happened last Monday morning…

Pavia News

This section was written by Creepi0n.

Olympic Highlights

I won’t cover everything, but if you want specifics on scores, medalling, etc., please take a look in Yoahtl’s discord.

Subreddit Highlights

Santiago, at night (cr: Maverick1351/Fendrell).

This section was written by Creepi0n.

Calendar

Oh no, I think that’s it. If you’ve got any events you want to highlight within the next month or so, please let me know!

Non-Civ Content

Poll of the Week

A grand view of Pavia city (cr: Gobblin)

Last week, we had 47 responses. Also, sorry guys, there’s also no poll this week, I just ran out of time to think of questions.

Olympic Events

This first question was about what events you’re planning to compete in the Olympics.

Interesting that people aren’t really here for the events or are intending to compete in very light events. It’s more about the community, rather than the actual events! I think this means that we need more serverwide crazy events, because I think people just like being together on Civ.

Newsletter Help

I am always looking for more help, so I’m very happy that more people want to help out with the news! Now the trick is being relatively consistent for doing so…

Again, if you’re willing to help with Newsletter writing, I’d really appreciate it @specificlanguage.

Conflict Frequency

Finally, the last question was about whether you thought there were too many conflicts this summer.

I would say no. Seems that the larger alliances and pacts have largely settled into being more spheres of influence and policeman against non-aligned raiders or rogue state actors. I would imagine at this stage in the world, there would need to be something truly horrific for large state v state conflict to break out again

not enough conflict. there wasn’t even a conflict that destroyed a nation. just shitters and weepee roaming around in a post gang shi world.

The conflicts were a little lackluster. They didn’t feel much like conflicts, and the only conflict that I can say is the closest to being a conflict is the Wet Bandits conflict. The rest are just… way too minor and too forgettable and often play no role in… any history.

Yes. I want to build without having the Wet Bandits in my local ;-;

I just joined in late May of this year, and this feels like peacetime. All of the conflicts seem like minor things that don’t affect me (or anyone who stays out of them) very much.

Straggling Answers from the Open Response

About newsletter question: weekly chemistry corner

I don’t know enough about Chemistry (or science for that matter) to really do that.

I think editorial’s would be a fun thing to write for the newsletter provided they don’t get used as a soapbox to influence the server at a widescale. (ed. note: answer continues but is too long…)

About a year ago I did encourage people to write editorials for the newsletter — but there were very few people that actually had interest in writing something like that, and it never really got past a couple of entries. Not only do these opinion pieces get piled down because these things are so long (it’s more appropriate in a separate page which I have to advertise), it’s generally more effective to write these posts on the subreddit anyways.

I think people read the newsletter for the news, not for the opinion. Plus, what I think this newsletter has the benefit of being a very quick hit (for lack of a better word) — it’s relatively easy to digest and read. I know people read these on their phones more often than not.

Having opinions/editorials would not really make that goal as easy as it is now.

Vote Now!

I’m sure these questions will definitely stoke debate.

Please note that all information submitted is anonymous. A red star (
*
) means that this question is required to submit.
Where are you filling out this poll right now?
Do you have a positive, neutral, or negative perception of the (CivMC) admins, and why?

Very Short Cry for Help

Icarus’ hockey team defeating the IF’s hockey team — with an embarrassing final score.

Thanks to Creepi0n and IntentGames for going the extra mile and helping me out with some critical portions of the newsletter this week (when I barely have time to write it!)

Additional thanks also have to go out to BritishWanderer, Mickale, SonicFrost, x1025, and Zolo for some other aspects of the news this week.

Anyway, back to being oncall! Until next time…

EDIT CIVWIKI