CivWiki Monday Newsletter

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

CivWiki Newsletter for December 9, 2024

• specificlanguage

Good morning and happy Monday from the Pacific Northwest!

It’s quite a busy time for me but I think it’s finally refreshing to start looking at Civ this weekend. No seriously, I think this has been the least stressful time it’s been for the genre. Have you noticed this long peace has been for a year now? That feels like it’s a record in Civ terms (although, maybe it’s because we’ve just been fatigued with frequent/long wars).

As a reminder, this is the third to last edition of the weekly newsletters, savor it while you can! Are we ready to get to the news?

This week’s featured image is in Altepetl, a grand overview of the city. I was lucky when Simpology was around when I was here — otherwise you most likely you would probably see one of the same views of the Pigeon in Town Square. I was able to tour some great spots around the city (some of which are very publicly accessible!) and I’m so happy to see. Really love how the city has progressed but retained its jungle style. Can’t wait to come back once again!

Featured Article

DUMP, full name the ‘Defense Union for Mutual Prosperity’, was an alliance on CivClassic that intended to bring together the server’s newer nations in an effort to join together under a defense and trade pact. Envisioned by new nation Eddie Murphy, its initial members primarily consisted of it and Cortesia Del Mar, with several nations also appearing in its ranks throughout the months. Several nations were set to join the alliance however either backed out at the last second, or quit soon after their joining.

The alliance faced multiple issues throughout its history, including the One Hour War, the Collapse of Eddie Murphy, and the Columbia-Cascadia War throughout 2021. With the alliance in May 2021 consisting of Blackwell, Monterey, and Cortesia Del Mar, the alliance would eventually dissolve and become the Confederation of Eastern States in May 2021. DUMP was one of the first examples of newfriend nations creating an alliance by themselves, something that would later be repeated with Newfriend Development Initiative later on the server and the International League of Assistance, although all have had varying levels of success.

This week’s featured image was the DUMP’s flag.

This Week In Civ

On the week of December 9 - December 15 in:

2022:

  • Negotiations between Gensokyo and Dalgon broke down as the allies of both countries could not agree on adequate reparations following the Speedy Coup.
  • Icenia, Ocala, Temporal Isles, and Arnen became involved in a weekend of attacks and raids, resulting in Ocala being dissolved.
  • mTfUJi has created two different slander memes, one of which covers almost every aspect of CivMC. CivReign’s latest teaser hints at Soul Steel, a metal stronger than Netherite. CivMC admins have encouraged nations to build Christmas trees or other objects to celebrate the holiday season, with a Christmas card contest and presents also being offered later down the line.

2023:

  • Icenia and Yoahtl declared war on Gang Shi following revelations that the country was surreptitiously attempting to conquest the server, starting with Icenia; Yoahtl was implicated after the false pretenses of a non-aggression pact.
  • The Gang Shi vault, Black Mesa, was disabled by the two countries, known as the Dawn Guard Pact; later that weekend a Gang Shi-supported skybridge approached Altepetl but was unsuccessful; several players were pearled during this attack.
  • Baile pearled Renji_Haikon and Augustus_Vex, their own citizens following an internal dispute.
  • The Monument Group handed out dividends that were higher than expected due to high profits, it may intend to buy back shares to access a wider market in the future.
  • CivCubed introduced a vulnerability system that only allowed attacks during a certain timeframe; reception has been mixed but intended to increase activity on the server.

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The News

Soria Castle, in the early morning. (cr: VilyanZ)

CivMC Update

CivMC pushed out a quality of life update, ostensibly their final update prior to the Christmas season.

Around the Server

For most people unknown to Civ, the pattern I’ve been recently seeing is that most Metagame posts get thrown onto the subreddit, while the real news gets thrown into Discord.

Economic & Meta-News

I’m separating this out simply for some complex things that aren’t necessarily political happenings.

Metagame Highlights

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The Fun Stuff

Sodderike as seen from Meridionalis, on a foggy, cloudy day across the lake (cr: bananablu)

Calendar

Builds

Here we go, time to clear up the two week plus backlog!

Actually, I didn’t even clear the backlog at all with this. Well…

Join to know more! https://discord.gg/DhPB3yRpwX

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Cool Content

Memes

Non-Civ Content

Buy Raven for all your armor or tool related needs! We do deliveries to Pavia, Transylvania, Accra, Yoahtl, and Exilus as well as Lambat Portal and Titan Portal for our pearled customers. Make orders by joining our discord:

discord.gg/nnRdn6CYFY

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Poll of the Week

Shockton, all full of snow. It looks like a Christmas Village from this point of view! (cr: Seldomsh0ck)

Last week, we had 63 responses, which is surprisingly, more than usual.

How Long Does CivMC Have Left?

For those newer to the genre (or haven’t played in a while), nearly every long-running Civ server has gotten longer and longer; the current record holder is actually CivMC’s predecessor, CivClassic at 4.5 years, whose stability had even been in question at CivMC’s point in its life.

Meanwhile, CivMC, in Civ server standards has been really stable and actually very passable in Minecraft standards. How long though, is a very interesting question, which this really hinges upon.

i think [the server] will last at least two years longer considering the large playerbase and how beloved the map is

Two years seems to be the prevailing answer, which at this point would tie CivClassic in terms of timeline.

Interestingly, I think this is the point in Civ history where we actually don’t reset because of an external factor (which is sort of the reason for most long-running server deaths), but because the playerbase will be fatigued from playing this map too long. I love it, but sometimes, you just want something new to play to forge new relationships.

I think there needs to be a good balance between a server that lasts long enough for people to be willing to build up the type of orgs and infrastructure that we’ve all come to know in the genre. Yet, having a server last in perpetuity also hinders the growth of the community. I think it would be good for the admins to reset the server every few years.

While the admins are doing a great job adding novelty in an otherwise “solved” game, there’s definitely some people who just want a fresh slate to start something new again — which is a difficult problem for someone coming into the genre for the first time. Not to mention the large effort to produce marketing hype, a new map, interesting mechanics to hook players, etc.

Now, this isn’t to say, the admins need to reset the map. But it’s worth a thought experiment.

Alliance Types

This iteration has seen a much different alliance system than other Civ servers we’ve seen so far. A lot more nations have taken upon the model popularized by The Commonwealth, having multiple nations under a single unifying country to control their international policy. We’ve seen that more lately with Icenia, the IF, and Yoahtl, and it’s seen much more success this time around, although it generally works better with a central authority, which is a little bit less in the IF, which as a result brings us to:

Confederations seem to produce the most vibrant, dynamic, and idverse cultral and political environments, and while those don’t necessarily have the same staying power and self-contained communities, those environments of confluence and exchange are some of the most innovative and striking featrures of the genre.

While I’m never the one to compare Civ people to channers, Lyrean Community has some sort of comparison to pan-Chan alliances in Civcraft 2.0. It’s still sort of allowed this autonomy internally and so far has been a great boon to the small, tight-knit community for the protectorates included. Long-term, I am curious to see if another national force can also pull this off.

Multinational alliances are hard to get right but will work well under the right management. The people who want to power play and control large alliances are the last people who should be running them.

When I usually think of multi-national alliances, I think of things like Entente or NATO that span the whole map and become military powerhouses, which doesn’t feel good for the community. But of course, there are the more wholesome ones, but for a historical Civ player this is what it gravitates to sometimes. It does feel exhausting to micromanage a whole nation for a newfriend though.

Vote Now!

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Wintery Wonderland Cry for Help

Several Icenians coming together to tear down some derelict houses in the city (cr: Okx/ChrisChrispie)

Wow, I actually didn’t have to run my garbage newsletter meta-ads this week — how do I tell people what I want so I can make money now??

Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter, and I did this one all by myself — no real clarifying questions necessary here. A little bit exhausting and took a little bit more time than I used to (although maybe it’s just cause I’m washed).

As we’re going to be switching the format soon (I’ll talk about it more next week!), I’m looking for regular columnists to help with the newsletter — it’s only a monthly commitment, and you’d be able to write about anything, as long as it’s related to Civ. Reach out to me if you’re interested, @specificlanguage on Discord!

Thanks so much for all your support. Until next week…

EDIT CIVWIKI