Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

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Scott Alexander
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Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Scott Alexander »

1. New map. Big changes are that World Capital has sunk beneath the waves (what did you expect after half a century of failing to maintain an ocean city?), Aryasht has moved to Neroles, Frosthelm, Hibernia and Lhingatanih have been removed, Omega and Mevwan have been rejiggered to make their shapes nicer-looking, and Aulaur has (finally) been added.

2. The new strategy seems to be to concentrate activity on Neroles and hope it gets interesting before trying for the wider world again. Anyone on Neroles should meet at the Neroles Concordium to be held in Aziruta. Anyone not on Neroles who feels left out, talk to me and we'll see what we can do about either getting you on Neroles or planning alternate arrangements.

3. Of all the proposals for saving Archipelago, the one that seems to have the fewest objections is inviting the Micrans in to colonize. I'm a little ambivalent about it, because I've opposed a bunch of previous projects in that direction (like the GSO) and could justifiably be called a hypocrite for supporting this one. And, honestly, I am a hypocrite, and I don't have any excuse, except that I really like Archipelago and don't want it to die. Any abuse anyone wants to give me for it is probably well-deserved.

4. That leaves the question of how. In-game, maybe we can get the Hurmu Gate open again on the Micras end. I don't know where we would want to open the other end on Pelagia. Maybe in the middle of the ocean, around old World Capital? Or do we want to choose one of the other two big continents as the Micras colonization hotspot and stick it there?

5. I'd like some public relations and marketing help in getting people on Micras to actually notice our existence. Ryan, I've been a jerk to you and rejected all your ideas, but if for some reason you want to help anyway, you have the perfect resume (and I meant what I said about wanting to discuss things with you). Otherwise, I'll take whoever comes or do it myself.

6. The colonization project would take the form of granting statelet-sized chunks, plus a capital city, plus a forum in Archipelago, to any micronation or individual who applies for one. After that, they have to earn Expansion Credits the old-fashioned way. I'm not granting Shireroth half a continent just because they're Shireroth. At least that's my current plan. I'm willing to change if anyone else has a better idea.

7. I'm starting to think the emphasis on one person nations was a mistake. People seem to really like large nations. I think if people wanted to have multi-person nations, we should let them have more than one Senator, and not harass them in competitions as much as we did the Mevwani.

8. I'm re-taking the position of Autokrator, because of the whole "state of emergency" thing. We can hold new Speaker elections if things pick up.

9. Has anyone seen the Demon of Fides around lately?

10. Actually, let me expand on (3) a little more. Why bother saving Archipelago? Why do I think this place is worth it?

First, as a showcase for good cartography. The MCS has terrible maps, strong resistance to getting better maps, and policies that make trying to maintain better maps without their cooperation really tough. I've tried to get around that from the start with Pelagia.

Second, as a different scheme for expansion and colonization. Any halfway-respectable country on Micras can make as many expansion requests as they please and colonize all the interesting islands and rivers and enclaves on the map. I've yelled at Stormark for this before, but I could pick any of the five largest countries and it would be a fair complaint. Pelagia's designed to make expansion and colonization easy, but unlimited expansion and colonization tough.

Third, as an attempt to get micronational economies going. Because land is one of the rare things people actually want, having a land-based currency - the EC - offers more opportunities for micronational business that aren't just Andreas crunching numbers at people.

Fourth, as a place that promotes constructed culture. I'm going to downplay that from now on, because if we're really getting colonized by Micras it will be less about one person nations, but I want to continue the conworlding contest, the "geofiction" brand, and trying to attract conworlders to our shores.

Finally, the entire Archipelago is on one forum. Map-making apparatus, economic apparatus, and all of the statelets. That's something Harvey dreamed about for the broader micronational community, and it's a good dream.

I think all of these advantages are worth protecting, and if the plan to get more Micrans interested in Archipelago succeeds, maybe we can start changing the wider community.

11. Also, I notice a lot of people don't like me. I'm not prepared to not stand up for my ideas. I am prepared to stand up for my ideas in a less confrontational way, if people help me out with how. I don't really know how to deal with this, and I don't like having a reputation as the guy who a lot of people dislike, but tell me what to fix (specifically) and I'll fix it. Or if other people want to handle PR for the Archipelago project and let me make maps so you don't have to worry about me, I would be thrilled with that.

Sammy J McMillan
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Sammy J McMillan »

On the MCS map being ugly - what's wrong with the special map? http://micras.org/maps/pawelspecial.png
Sammy J McMillan
ANTICAN LIBERATION DEVICE. Allow curiosity to seduce ya: http://www.bastionunion.org/forum/viewt ... =320&t=992
Citizen of the Republic, friend of :sammyj:
In the quotes thread, Ardy wrote:You know, you are a bit of an arse - even by the standards of this hobby (which is an achievement).

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Scott Alexander
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Scott Alexander »

It's ugly.

Also, it's at least two years out of date, and there are reasons for that, alluded to in my "trying to maintain better maps without their cooperation is tough" line above.

Also, we misssss yooooou.

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Aryeztur
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Aryeztur »

I am so surprised that absolutely no one objected to my move.
The Great King, King of Kings, King of the World

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Harvey
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Harvey »

Remove expansion credits, both as a contest incentive and as a mean of expansion. It was an interesting experiment but I think it failed. It made winning contests very important, which lead to disgruntlement when someone made a really awesome entry since everyone else knew they'd have no shot of winning and shouldn't bother. And, despite the fact we all ended up with a few thousand of them eventually, I was one of the few to actually expand using it and immediately felt guilty in doing so since it seemed like I was breaking some sort of mysterious unbroken rule not to do that.

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Scott Alexander
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Scott Alexander »

Remove expansion credits, both as a contest incentive and as a mean of expansion. It was an interesting experiment but I think it failed. It made winning contests very important, which lead to disgruntlement when someone made a really awesome entry since everyone else knew they'd have no shot of winning and shouldn't bother. And, despite the fact we all ended up with a few thousand of them eventually, I was one of the few to actually expand using it and immediately felt guilty in doing so since it seemed like I was breaking some sort of mysterious unbroken rule not to do that.
But...isn't it good to have a contest incentive and for winning contests to be important? That was the original design! And sure, it sucks when someone enters "my face" into a contest and that wins and then everyone gets upset because contests are important, but there's got to be a better way to solve that.

You, Alicorn, Aryez, and Shyriath all expanded using expansion credits (or, in Aryez's case, a loan of them) and you, Shy, Fides and myself used them to place extra map icons. I'd say that's sort of okay. I mean, you're right, it failed, but only after everything else in Archipelago did too. Most of the people who seemed to be "taking Archipelago seriously" ended up getting some and using them.

Do you think it would help if everyone got a certain EC "salary" just for hanging around long enough? That might take the pressure off winning them in contests, but still make people want to win.
I am so surprised that absolutely no one objected to my move.
See! We miss you, Harvey!

...seriously, I was going to object because I don't like to move countries for the same reason I don't like to create new continents...but you were right that you were getting kind of lonely on Echaras there, and things are quiet enough that I don't think it will disrupt anything in the works.

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Harvey
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Harvey »

But...isn't it good to have a contest incentive and for winning contests to be important? That was the original design! And sure, it sucks when someone enters "my face" into a contest and that wins and then everyone gets upset because contests are important, but there's got to be a better way to solve that.

You, Alicorn, Aryez, and Shyriath all expanded using expansion credits (or, in Aryez's case, a loan of them) and you, Shy, Fides and myself used them to place extra map icons. I'd say that's sort of okay. I mean, you're right, it failed, but only after everything else in Archipelago did too. Most of the people who seemed to be "taking Archipelago seriously" ended up getting some and using them.

Do you think it would help if everyone got a certain EC "salary" just for hanging around long enough? That might take the pressure off winning them in contests, but still make people want to win.
I feel that the entering of the contests was always far, far more important than deciding the winner. In a way, the voting and eventual winning was sort of a downer, since that meant that, despite the fact that a number of people put forth effort to come up with interesting ideas, we had to decide that someone got rewarded and a bunch of people didn't.

Maybe merely entering a contest should earn a credit bounty and then the winner would get another 50% credit bonus, something like that. Obviously, you reserve the right to give 0 credits to entries that show no effort at all.
See! We miss you, Harvey!
You guys are talking about colonizing the damn moon to save the sim. I wasn't going to object moving a country away from a sparsely populated area of the map in the general name of activity.

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Scott Alexander
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Scott Alexander »

Maybe merely entering a contest should earn a credit bounty and then the winner would get another 50% credit bonus, something like that. Obviously, you reserve the right to give 0 credits to entries that show no effort at all.
You're right. I'll do it this way from now on. Or something like this. There's probably a long way between things I'm prepared to say don't show any effort at all, and things that should earn ECs, but something like that, yes.

Andreas the Wise
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Andreas the Wise »

9. Has anyone seen the Demon of Fides around lately
He's currently in his last week of Grade 12 (last year of high school in Australia). I expect he's been caught up with exams, assignments, the formal etc. (Though I make no promises he'll return after that, he had officially quit micronationalism before he came back for Archipelago)
The character Andreas the Wise is on indefinite leave. But he does deserve a cool war ribbon.
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However, this account still manages:
Vincent Waldgrave - Lord General of Gralus
Manuel - CEO of VBNC. For all you'll ever need.
Q - Director of SAMIN
Duke Mel'Kat - Air Pirate, Melangian, and Duke of the Flying Duchy of Glanurchy
Cla'Udi - Count of Melangia
Vur'Alm Xei'Bôn - Speaker of Nelaga, Minister of Interior Affairs, and a Micron

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Alicorn
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Alicorn »

1. Can I have a border only version so I can put in my new provinces on my province map?

2. I don't want to be on Neroles. I like my curly island and my lake and being antarctic. But time moves really slowly 'round Mevwan parts all of a sudden now anyway (it's probably those damn lake barbarians they disturbed with the colonization effort, they have powers we cannot fully explain!) so we'd only be confused by international politics anyway.

7. Ade says she could plausibly come to be interested in doing Mevwan things again if things ever happen around here again. Winged says he's not sure. Now I've gone and had all these barbarian-related ideas. I might try to get one or two more Mevwan citizens just so somebody else can be the barbarians and I can finish that line of storying.

Kaiser Reynardine II
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Re: Autokrator's Saturday Address, Year 188

Post by Kaiser Reynardine II »

Well, here I go being alone on the other side of the globe again. Hurray for isolationism!

On #11: I'm unsure where you got the idea that you're disliked. There are a lot of different views on where Archipelago is and should be going, but I don't see where it's become as personal as you make it out to be.

I might be able to muster up some more work on SwnnHalla after my fall term ends. I do have things I want to cover.
AKA Kallinn Ynnetrrr
ALSO Kalasien Baarrnan/Liam ronToketi

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