CivWiki Monday Newsletter for December 19, 2022

Dec 19, 2022 • specificlanguage

Good morning and belated Christmas from New England!

I just realized that the next newsletter won’t be until December 26, so I guess this is my Christmas edition, unless you really want to see stuff on Boxing Day. You know, wouldn’t have this been very funny if we had a Monday Newsletter on Christmas? It’d be like opening a Christmas present for all you Civvas who aren’t going to get any presents. Well, you’re going to have to wait an extra day instead and I’m going to stay up late with all the newfriends who are playing Civ for the holidays.

Ready for the news?

Featured

Featured Image

This week’s featured image is Icenia’s Christmas Tree in their local park, Drugs and Alcohol Abuse Park. I will admit I was afraid to put that name on the Wiki. The country’s latest escapades have not stopped them from economic development in the city, where XP runs are abundant and the shops are nearly always in stock. Even in the North (or I guess, West?), a new district with builds by SirBoss001 are going up quite rapidly. It’s a great place for happenings right now and it’s awesome to see.

Featured Article

The United Defensive Front, abbreviated UDF, was an alliance between several nations, mainly in the Northern Continent on CivClassic. The alliance was an all-encompassing international political and economic union, but also emphasized self determination, neutrality, free trade, mutual defense, and shared infrastructure. Formed after the collapse of the first United Northern Congress (UNC), it was originally founded with Imperial Truidence, Icenia, and Bloom as founding members, with Yoahtl, Columbia, Southshire, SPQR, and Acadia all joining later in its life.

The alliance was a mainstay in CivClassic despite its involvement in drama across the server. Among some highlights were the aptly-named Chick-Fil-A Crisis, its involvement in the War of the Coalition and the second half of the Infinity War, and the Mount September Ice Road Conflict in 2021. Communications were managed by the UDF Spokesperson, a position primarily held by Enforcer15 throughout the latter years of CivClassic. The institution stood until the end of CivClassic in 2021, however nearly all of these countries continued in some form on CivMC, some being an autonomous state of today’s Icenia.

This week’s featured picture is the members of the UDF, depicted as a Civball version of the Simpsons meme “Sneed’s Feed and Seed” created by StrPlatinum. I know there’s technically a newer version created by KnotNSA, but this is the classic version and I used that one already. Whoops!

Featured Writing

In addition to our featured articles this week, we have an additional featured writing piece. Written by staff writer Thraldrek, he’s written an essay about the controversial yet idealist concept of a United Nations within Civ. Here’s the abstract:

If you’ve been playing in this community long enough, you will have undoubtedly been witness to “Civ UN” debates. While being emotionally taxing, they do offer some interesting Civ theory for a player to dive into. This essay touches on the topic of social structures within Civ, and how Civ UN’s are an important, yet utopic form of that. While being difficult to create and maintain, UN’s make up some of the highest level Civ gameplay a player can find in the genre. Unfortunately, UN’s will almost always fail due to a myriad of ways. Reasons for this include, but aren’t limited to, social cost (time), original organizational goals and how they may be viewed after creation and group dynamics within (and occasionally outside) the organization. Regardless, it is the view of this essay that they are not inherently bad, and players should not shy away from challenges that make the genre truly unique.

You can read the full essay here.

Current Events

Pavia’s completed main street, waterfront and city, following its Build Weekend. I did post a small section of the city last week, but now it’s very complete and fleshed out!

Semi-Highlights

At this point, I’m basically operating with the newsletter expecting a big drama stink to happen which requires me to talk about it for more than a bullet point. Oh well.

Time is a Flat Circle

At the start of this week, summaries of the previous weekend were provided by Icenia and Temporal. I already summarized the Icenian viewpoint last week, so let’s see what PhysicsGamer has to say:
- The TL;DR of the document mostly agrees with the Icenian viewpoint except for the fact that Arnen maintained a war with both Ocala and Temporal, with the latter hoping to merge the two conflicts together to split reparations equally.
- The continued war last week, resulting in PhysicsGamer’s pearl. Supposedly Temporal Isles was considering detaching relations from Ocala, but Ocala kept relying on Temporal aid.’
- PhysicsGamer has said that Icenia was continuing to act in bad faith, and are violating the agreement when the latter was not really true.
- Icenia had argued that Temporal Isles was engaging in (quite literally) hostile intentions after continuing to allow known criminals in their territory.
- Public reception to the post was quite negative, with many disavowing the post, especially after the Icenia post was more favorably received.
Eventually negotiations went underway with Icenian officials, eventually making a post on Saturday stating their demands for Physics’ unpearling:
- Open and more reasonable communication with Icenia,
- Removal and inspection of hostile defensive infrastructure close to Icenia’s border
Additionally, Arnen has sold a small portion of its land to Kommi, in an area of which was part of Butternut. PhysicsGamer has since contested the claim, saying it’s part of Temporal’s territory.

To me, these demands are somewhat reasonable and completely rational actions considering that these were the problems that caused issues with Icenia in the first place.

Meanwhile, Ocala has seen more issues from Arnen:

While Icenia was recovering pearls from the Ocalan bunker during last week’s attack the city was griefed with reinforced obsidian last week by DockerImage.
In response, a peaceful protest occurred at Arnen’s capital protesting the obbybombing attacks. Arnen has since stated they would clean up the obsidian griefed.
Possibly unrelated but a new nation, DonFuer, has claimed the Ocalan land as a result, being a relatively uncontested claim.

Brewerygate

CivMC admins announced that a person “abused” insider knowledge to share powerful Brewery recipes, and decided to update brewery recipes to compensate.
- As part of the original recipes that RektTangle had implemented as part of the initial brewery configuration, there were several powerful brews, given through very little information, intended to only be figured out through trial and error.
- Several of the recipes unassociated with any country, especially utility brews, were being handed out to certain players, something that made for an uneven brewery playing field, admins said.
- Superbgamer had discovered several of the recipes and leaked it on the subreddit just after the announcement was posted.
- Currently, Superbgamer is pearled by Estalia (you can check in game right now!) for unrelated issues from trespassing into Estalian territory. It is relatively disappointing how much he’s been screwed over, with the Gensokyo/Nara conflict earlier this year, and now Estalia, and even the admins screwing him over.

Around the Server

Imperial Federation’s capital, Imperia, with the Empire Circus market pictured in its town square, reminiscent of a 1800s British arcade. It’s not all Ohio, I swear!

The Northwest

The former nation of Columbia has been revived, a successor to the nation on CivClassic. Currently, they’re settling next to Kallos. Originally many of its citizens resided in Petrichor, now a part of Icenia, but some have migrated over to the new iteration.
DockerImage of Arnen is currently being wanted for a small 15d bounty after trespassing in Estalia. Yes, it’s a meme.

Lyrean Community & Northeast

Several happenings in Pavia:
- The Monument Group in Pavia held a public sale of about 1/10th of their stocks following their extravagant build weekend.
  - The positive reputation must have done something incredible, as investors rushed to the twelve lots, with a total sum of over 2,000 diamonds being paid for the stocks.
  - Only time will tell if these investors will make up these investments.
- The Farley War advertised last week occurred in Pavia, with Sugarwater winning the free-for-all and Spoonce & krunl winning the 2v2 tournament.
- A sheep disappearance in Pavia has had mixed reactions on the investigation
And more happenings in Yoahtl:
- Another great pigeon migration has begun in Yoahtl to Lusitania on Saturday. Seems they’ve been really become accustomed to the pigeons.
- Kobylinski, a successor to the city in CivClassic is currently under construction. Crossposted from the Yoahtl Times.
- Yergo has resigned from the council due to real-life health concerns, and as a result, a snap midterm election is being held. Crossposted from the Yoahtl Times.
- The country is also planning to extend their Great Overland Railway past Mery and into Pavia.
Lambat is currently holding their Metro Council Elections for Lambat City, after being delayed for two months. Elections are currently ongoing with most candidates already being part of the State Council.

Alenarith & Southeast

Mount Augusta has elected its new mayor, ComradeNick, to a large majority. I guess the ComradeNicktatorship is going to continue…
- One of his first acts as mayor (that will certainly pass soon) was to annex the nearby territory of Juliana. You may remember that this was an issue several months ago after they took over the territory of Zatoka, and caused a big stink before leaving.
- The country is also currently looking at alliances with New Jersey and Gang Shi, other fellow Gensokyo Defense pact members.
Major bureaucratic shakeups are occuring in Danzilona.
- There is currently a proposal for the creation of a treasury in Danzilona, with encouraging comments.
- The consuls of the provinces and the NDZ council was dissolved, citing the extreme amount of bureaucracy created with this system. (I’ve seen a thing or two with too much bureaucracy, and it doesn’t end well!)
Nara has retired its #sadvertisements channel, which is incredibly sad, however its been replaced by a forum system. Goodbye to a weird and quirky corner of the Nara discord.
The Royal Lusitan Corporation has sadly shut its doors after its board no longer found it viable for operation. They closed their branches in Nara and heads ArtificialDriver and PCRato were commended for a great run.
Gensokyo became the victim of a minor grief in the city, after Estalian fighters reinforced grief in their train station. Supposedly, they are doing small run-ins with nations a la the MtA tree heists of old.
The Transport Union has been hard at work constructing tunnels in the second dimension, with connections to several nether portals, or what they call “gates”.

Imperial Federation & West

Imperial Federation’s Empire Circus in their capital, Imperia has been fully constructed (see above), built by King Cupar with the support of Jalhf, PennsylvanianSankara, Aetherix, Spoonce, Southw3st, Juicy_Watermel0n, Orcadium, AdamJN and Joelthatroll. The country is also currently designing the rest of the capital throughout the month.
- The country has also made connections in Dalgon’s nether network and further internal rails in their territory, as well as connecting to the OneDest network.
The Commonwealth has allowed people to campaign for a term as the prime minister, with the election taking place at the end of the month; the current and only candidate is OakShelf, hoping to create a national treasury.
Both the CW and the IF are looking to build a rail link in the very near future, connecting destination of one of the longest journeys currently on OneDest.

Server Administration

On Saturday, December 17, DockerImage called on CivMC admins to unban TolypeVelleda, after he logged on with an alternative account.
- While the community was supportive, superfriend LordofMarzipan contested that this should have been a discord ticket, although TolypeVelleda had already been unbanned well before this with a turnaround time of just above a day.
- As a result, LordofMarzipan warned the playerbase about bans when logging in from different locations, as the classic “association ban” on a different IP or “VPN ban” is a common sight when moving.
Last week, Ferro posted ye old piss dog in the in-game chat, discord and later, the subreddit and was temporarily banned for “mute evasion”.
- Please refer to August 8th’s newsletter for the controversy surrounding that.
- However, more hypocritically, CivMC admin Ahri posted good ol piss dog in Gensokyo. So, make of that what you will.
Supposedly, CivMC Weekly Updates are returning, and were supposed to be released yesterday — so if it doesn’t, I’m blaming Ahri once again
CivReign’s latest teaser (announced one day earlier than expected!) shows flotsam, a treasure found in the sea floating as trash.
CivRedemption has launched a new version of a Civ Skyblock server after announcing it back in November. Apologies for not covering this much earlier when it was announced in late October. It’s currently a temporary affair while the administration is working to launch a 1.18 version of the server later next year.

The Fun Stuff

The Commonwealth’s Verdant Valley, with a lot of new development from loo_wee_gee. Honestly these townhouses are really impressive and I would have made it the featured image had it not been the holiday season.

Holiday “Decorations”

The picture I showed of Verdant Valley is only the start of what’s in the region, take a look at this album for more. Honestly quite impressive what could be done in a month!
Of course, have to give props to Pavia for their meteoric expansion in their build weekend that I’ve already highlighted
- Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without several more pictures posted in #builds…
Holy shit, the Estalia market at 0,0 is coming together, now if only it had actual shops
gruebleen has built one large Brewery setup…
I really like the Dolphin Sanctuary that Torynado has taken a picture of in Yoahtl
The Doom Delivery^TM branch HQ in Icenia is looking damn fine, and is a perfect example of the old 1900s American architecture, good job Shady Sauce

Christmas Cards and More

Christmas Cards

Yoahtl’s Christmas Card is extremely clean and evocative of their pigeon migrations. Say goodbye, partridges in pear trees!
Ila’Kyavul’s Christmas Card is more reminiscent of early 1900s American coal miners rather than actual Christmas Card
Alright I know I ragged on Dalgon’s Christmas “Card”, but I really do like the build as well in the background.

”And More”

Am I supposed to be wowed by this SpeedyJustice RP ad? I really don’t think I am
Although this may be a meme, the effort into shitposting about HenryDraton by Dr_Bacon_Hair far surpasses the meme status

Home Alone Pranks

Obtrusive Holiday Ads

Danzilona is opening up a public library and is requesting books, contact Azelair for more details.
Obligatory Doom Delivery^TM Ad from ShadySauce, now currently in Icenia
Topher Tower in Doom City is now looking for tenants for second floor spaces. It’s a very expansive space close to Mount Augusta.

Metagame Highlights

Nara has posted a Newfriend Academy which is a guide for newfriends to get started on the server, check it out!
Similarly, Danzilona has posted their own version of a guide for new players joining their nation.
ChrisChrispie asks what are the oldest nations on the server and immediately mispells Danzilona
He also continuously complained about American Airlines screwing him over after being stuck in Cancun and/or Dallas Fort-Worth for over 15 hours.
- I will admit I was stuck in JFK overnight by American for a similar amount of time myself so I at least can relate to his situation.
Lambat and Lusitania did a little switcharoo on their discord icons last Friday confusing everyone for all of one day. Cool December Fools Prank guys!

Merry Happy Cry for Help

Yoahtl’s Holiday greeting card, with their pigeons!

Thanks for reading this week’s edition of the newsletter. Thankfully, this is one of the first editions where I’m not staying up until 2am to finish.

Huge thanks to Thraldrek who wrote an extended piece just for the newsletter about the diplomatic implications of a CivUN, round of applause for him. Take a read once more if you haven’t already.

Additionally, I’d like to thank BritishWanderer and Creepion, as well as Cammo and Topaz for helping out on proofreading and providing information, respectively, throughout this week.

If you’d like to contribute to the newsletter, contact me at specificlanguage#2891 or fill out this form for a featured article! It’s easy and less convoluted than making drama, and all you need is a funny CivWiki article you can write about. It’s literally the same length as a writing assignment, just click Random page and just crank out 100 words. It’s funny! I really appreciate all the help as we continue into the holiday season.

I’ll see you all on Boxing Day!

And as always…

EDIT CIVWIKI