Aileron

Okay, there are going to be many things different about this round. First off, due to popular demand this round will last 3 months. Clans have been reset. This was mostly done to remove all of the junk clans, so new players can tell which clans are worth joining. Old clans are free to re-form as they were previously, though it would be preferable if people used this opportunity to form two or three new large clans rather than the dozen tiny ones that existed previously. Also, there's a new rule: All clans must have an active playing leader. If the leader becomes inactive, a new one will be appointed. A clan can run itself however it likes. All I ask is that there is a warm body in the official slot approving the join requests. Final scores will not be posted. Rather, a system of continuous clan-based performance will be used. Two bank accounts are present. The Hidden Stash will charge a 10% withdrawal fee. The Bizarro Bank is free, but will reset itself every 24 hours. The forum administers claim no responsibility for funds lost to the feral accounting monkeys. You have been warned. Clicker has been added. Every time someone clicks on your link you get 100 soldiers, 200 if that person is your officer. There is a new rule on that too: Don't post the link in place its not welcome such as other forums, message boards, email, etc. By the way, feel free to add it to your forum signatures here. Ships were changed. The Terrier now has an income penalty. The Warbird's income bonus isn't so high. Leviathon now has no income penalty but does have covert and sentry penalties. The Weasel's bonuses got moved to Sentry. UP upgrade rate is now 25 instead of 10. This should cause people to grow faster. Weapons are generally stronger and more expensive. Sentry weapons are no longer cheaper than their covert equivalents. Recon should now be feasible. Mercs are now very expensive. Covert weapons now sell at 75%. Conventional weapons still sell at 90%. Max covert level is now 8. Covert levelups are more expensive. Siege and Fortification technologies are now very expensive. Hold off on buying them until all of your weapons cost 4 times the cost of the upgrade. The final upgrades should be affordable about halfway through the round. Points, turns, and soldiers are now gained at the top of the hour rather than at the 15 and 25 minute mark. Due to the 3 month round, there will be a total of FIVE special ships that will be added one at a time every two weeks. They are in this order: Nightwasp, Oldskool Warbird, Oldskool Javelin, Oldskool Spider, Oldskool Leviathon. The Nightwasp will be similar to what it has been. The Oldskool ships will be just like their parent ships only with a deduction bonus based upon how much time is left in the round.

Well, one question is that are they not attacking Spain because they want to make peace with Spain, or is it that they would still attack Spain were it not for the fact that they have bigger problems? Actually, there are lots of instances in history were countries used unconventional tactics against another countries' civilians. There's little mention of them though because the tactic does not work. At most, they just anger the conventionally strong party, which will then deal with them brutally. And the UK should not try to get along more with the rest of Europe. Europe's track record is worse than ours is.

This notion wasn't designed to apply to this degree. "In God We Trust" is something entirely different than the policies the concept opposes. The idea is that in older times (and current times in certain parts of the world), candidates would need a stamp of approval from the clergy to hold office, and likewise clergy would need approval from the secular authorities to practice their vocation. To that end, the biggest most recent threat to SBCS is that last time Rev. Al Sharpton ran for president, though even then not in concept because he is not using his !@#$%^&*le to take over. We've achieved SBCS. We did so a long time ago and shouldn't doubt that we have. There are seven facts I would like to point out on this matter: Religion is not Politics. Politics is not Religion. Religion is not Science. Science is not Religion. Politics is not Science. Science is not Politics. All three are necessary for society to function and non-interchangable, though NOT entirely isolated from each other.

Call it "Balls-shot"

The round is over. Here are your winners: 1st) Dav (SSCentralGods) 2nd) Aileron (SSCentralGods) 3rd) Falconknight (Penis) 4th) zappa 5th) JDS (Penis) Best Attack) Holes (roflcopter) Best Defense) Smarties (Smart!@#$%^&* and Hoe) Best Covert) !@#$%^&*onearth (Smart!@#$%^&* and Hoe) Best Sentry) Dav Largest Army) Ill Whip You Most Money in the Bank) freakmonger (SSCentralGods) Consolation Awards: Overall best player awarded to zappa for being on top for most of the month without clan backup. Best new clan awarded to Smart!@#$%^&* and Hoe for dominating Defense and Covert. Top 5 Non-Terrier Awards: Dav JDS The Real Picard (SSCentralGods) Keiver (Vagina) candygirl (sfss) "Special" Awards: Never-Positive award given to Beef Masta flex of clan Penis for not having positive points for any reasonable period of time. Best-Nobody award given to Paine for being the highest ranked player with zero pop. Most-Likely-to-Have-His-Toenails-Pulled-Out-by-My-"!@#$%^&*ociate"-Vinny Award given to Holes for being in the biggest debt. Didn't-Read-the-Pinned-Topic Award given to candygirl for attempting to withdraw money after the bank closed. Completely-Random Award given to wub for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Most-"Special" Award given to myself for wasting my time and yours writing this inane list.

Technically I gave a month's advance warning...I figured there would still be a couple stragglers though. This won't happen next round.

Attacks Open. Bank closed. Round ends at 8:00 PM est.

Attacks have closed. Reminder, you have one hour to use whatever money is in the bank. Any points remaining in the bank will be lost.

Its well regarded as a fact in Europe that if they be nice enough to Islamic nations that Islamic terrorists will leave them alone, provable by the fact that anyone who thinks otherwise must be a racist. I mean, with the recent resignation of Tony Blair prove of that !@#$%^&*uption is clearly true. The Islamic terrorists clearly have no complaints against the UK now. The last thing the terrorists want to do is, say, fill a car up with nails and makeshift explosives and attempt a carbombing. There certainly isn't any evidence of that sort of behavior in London. Why would it? The UK is disengaging the terrorists so the terrorists should disengage in reply, right? Now I for one think that Islamic terrorists are radicals who want every nation on Earth to impose Islam and won't stop until that goal is accomplished. I for one think that efforts to disengage will only convince them that the nation is "more ready" to accept their position and that they would want to go on the offensive. Clearly I'm wrong because Islamic terrorists are certainly not filling cars up with nail and makeshift explosives and parking them in London in an effort to go on the offensive.

Funny Astro, but before you can do any treatment you must first diagnose the condition. If the AMA doesn't consider the behavior to be a problem, then you have no right to treat it. I forget if Marijuanna is a stimulant or a depressant, but both come with a low-level physical addiction to it. Your nervous system essentially slows down or speeds up while on the drug and when off the drug won't work at the right speed. This isn't much of an addiction; coffee can do this. But the AMA still classifies it as a physical addiction.

If we were to par!@#$%^&*ion I'd say add Iran to the mix too. But, the middle east is not Europe. In Europe nations have borders where their influence is absolute on one side of the line and nil on the other. In the middle east, influence isn't that well bound by borders due to larger land area per capita.

Its seems that Hexxagon and Simon Says won't let you submit your scores every time. (Yes Dav, no one can beat your score at Hexxagon until this bug is fixed.) I'm not sure but I've think I've found what's causing the problem. I'll have to discuss it with Polix though.

I remember seeing a feature on O'Reilly about a man in the recent wildfire in Florida whose house was the only one on his street that wasn't destroyed. The reason for that is that everyone else on his street had foliage almost all the way up to his house, while this guy had it cleared. Relevancy? Its a good analogy for our current situation. As of 2000 there were several dictatorships seeking WMDs. Yes, they didn't quite have them yet, and yes even if they did they wouldn't have the range to reach us. We had the option to show some foresight and deal with the problem or wait until we are in their sights and then deal with them. We came out of one Cold War twenty years ago. It would be foolish in the extreme to let nations who consider themselves our enemies to build arms so that we can go through the whole thing again. The US was the only nation that wasn't really threatened by Nazi Germany. Germany's Navy was poor and no period aircraft could fly over an ocean and perform over enemy territory. That is ofcourse prior to nuclear weapons, but according to your logic we should ignore that possibility until they actually have the thing constructed and are waving it above our heads. Ask any martial arts master. If you wait for visual evidence of your opponants movement before you react, you won't have enough time. You have to observe them and sense their intentions.

Yeah but you would have to be ~really~ dumb to think you can make money that way. A complete newbie would figure the tactic would either lose money or return nothing and be a waste of turns and soldiers. One can always intentionally mess themselves up if that's their goal. I mean, I can understand I'll Whip You's desire to quit with style, but the rest of it seems to be some sort of attempt at losing on purpose and then blaming me for it. I'll admit that my underlying !@#$%^&*umption with settings is that players are trying to win. But if you insist, next round if I see anyone with negative money out, I'll forcibly remove mercs until their income is positive, and put those mercs back on the market.

That's not it. I know Ani doesn't think so, but I do still take orders from Polix, and one thing he wants me to do is simplify things for new players. The 90% weapon return is there because odds are a new player will not understand buying weapons and will buy too many of the wrong type. The return rate is generous so to limit the damage incurred by such a mistake. For the same reason there will always be a bank. A new player will be unused to the idea of keeping money stored in the form of weapons, but the bank is easy to figure out. As I said though, there will be a new scorekeeping system. Stockpilers will simply lose next round even if they jump from last to first within the last ten minutes. Each day a snapshot will be taken at a relatively random time. Tallies will be awarded to the overall top 10, 10 for 1st, 9, for 2nd, 8 for 3rd, etc. Also 5 additional tallies will be awarded to the leader in each of the 4 catagories. These tallies will be credited to the clan, and the current standings of all the clans will be posted. Individual performance will be tracked, but won't be posted until the clan situation is healthier. (Yes, this is more complicated, but only to whoever's keeping score. New players need only look at the final product.) Under that system, people can stockpile in the bank or in the weapons. It doesn't matter because they will still be shafted. The system also penalises those who focus on long-term growth, but to that end those who can get to the top quickly do deserve credit for doing so.

The Islamic dynasties were constantly at war. If not over the succession, then because of constant expanions, rebellions, and infighting. The Umayyid Caliphate fought its way in and was conquered out quickly. What's going on right now in Iraq would be considered "peace" by Abbasid standards. They had a Golden Age which lasted during the reign of one Caliph, which by the way started with a war of succession and then sunk back into chaos. The Western Caliphate was constantly at Jihad with Spain. I forget which one was the fourth, but they were probably at war all the time as well. I never learned about the Persians either. Your !@#$%^&*essment of Iraq is accurate. If we want to fix this situation into something *proper* where there isn't an -20 divide in wealth based upon ethnicity, it will take a long time. Bush knew this and repeatedly said it will take a long time. People don't listen and expect spectacular progress in a couple years. As such, it will also take a long time before this turns around and hits the terrorists. From the beginning, people always said that it is not enough to simply attack the terrorists, but to attack the root cause of terrorism. The root cause of terrorism is cultural, and thus we need to induce cultural change in order to defeat it. Cultural change takes time. Not time as in two years or four years, time as in twenty years or forty years. Since cultural change is what is needed, Iraq is as good a place as any to start.

Video games cannot cause a physical addiction, but neither can a lot of things that are already considered addictive, like marijuanna according to Smarties. (Though if I'm not mistaken marijuanna does have a low grade physical aspect to it.) This decision is a pre-curser to forming some sort of treatment or therapy program that can get those truly obsessed off the plug. Its not geared to create class action lawsuits against Blizzard and Sqaure Onix. The AMA doesn't care who sues who.

Bumping

Technically it was lowered to 10% a couple rounds ago.

This is a reminder that as announced the bank will close 8 hours prior to the end of the round. Any points left in the bank will be unaccessible after this time. As with last time, there will be a one-hour safe period before the banks close so that you can spend your points safely. This practice will not continue next round as there will be a new scorekeeping system.

There actually are a lot of options: Penalties can be applied both upon withdrawal and upon deposit in the form of either a flat rate or a percentage. Additionally there is an option to put in negative interest. There really is no real difference between withdrawal and deposit percentage fees if there is no interest, as bank money has to go through both before it can be spent again. (If there is interest, there's a difference) However, sometimes people have to deposit quickly before they are attacked. Also flat withdrawal fees are stupid. They penalise small withdrawals and mean next to nothing to stockpilers. So the only good choices are first off whether or not we do infact wich to penalise the bank, whether or not that penalty is in the form of a flat deposit fee, a percentage withdrawal fee, or negative interest. In terms of which one of those hurt the long term stockpiler the worst, negative interest does.

No, physical addictions are always worse. Mostly because there is a mental addiction there anyway and the physical addiction adds to it. Physical addictions do vary in degree, but the worst case-scenario is that the subject will literally die if they stop taking the drug. Okay, when I made statements about only some games having addictive properties, I meant role-playing games. All other genres don't. Football is hard to get addicted to, because in order to reach the highs, one has to increase their skills, which requires work and discipline, and even when you get on top you have to work to stay there. Role-playing games are different - all they require is time and then the game eventually becomes easy. It disgusts me, because last week I went to the video game store aiming for a PC game that wasn't a role-playing game, and couldn't find anything left that suited my tastes. I doubt this will ever turn into a lawsuit. I do think there might be regulations put in place if you could ever get a group of AMA doctors to understand video games...which I doubt because most doctors don't understand the concept of "free time" and if they do the only thing they do with it is golf.

Astro, its impossible to destabilize the Middle East. It would be like causing a drought in the Sahara Desert. The Middle East would have to have been stable at one point in history before anyone can be considered at fault for destablizing it. Our problem is simple. When we go into a war, we have certain objectives. We usually meet those objectives in the first couple weeks. So, we add more and more objectives until we create one that fundimentally will take a long time to take. Then we lose patience. Iraq's the example of that. Our primary objective was the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Baathists behind him. That mission was accomplished very early. So, we then added some wierd objective about inducing some sort of cultural improvement, enough to make proper democracy possible. This type of improvement takes decades no matter how powerfull the occupying force is. Then, we ask for results after 5 years when the complete process will probably take something close to 30. Imperialism isn't the worst form of oppression. Its better to live in a colony than a sovereign nation that practices genocide. Its better to live in a colony and to be able to choose your religion rather than live in a sovereign nation which will assign you one. Its better to live in a colony where on election day you get a choice between two officials who are catering to foreigners than to be in a sovereign nation where you don't get choice at all. Under those cir!@#$%^&*stances, its best NOT to be isolationist. Its amazing that so many people have !@#$%^&*igned Apathy as a virtue.

There are two faults with the bank. The first is that it is a tool for stockpiling. The way to fix that is stop rewarding that behavior. The second problem is that it is untouchable. As such it probably should have a penalty attached to it. Negative interest is the best way to do it. Its penalty increases as a player puts more money into the bank and as the player holds it in there longer. If the negainterest is .05%, and if the player is saving up for a 200mil UP upgrade will only be charged at most 1 mil per hour.

I could put in either negative interest or a withdrawal fee. A small negative interest would effectively deal with the stockpilers. However, the stockpilers will simply think of something else. The experiments of the famous behavioralist Dr. Skinner showed that if you have a periodic reward system, that pigeons will perform well at just after and just before the reward, but not perform as well in the intervals between. Obviously the fault in his research is that pigeons make a poor human analog. The point is however, that as long as the reward system rewards being on the top 3 at the last second, that is what people will aim for. My solution to the problem is to change the system by which winners are chosen. Take ranks daily, and top ranked players get tallies daily, bonus tallies for being 1st in a catagory. By "players" I mean "clans", because clan vs. clan appeals to everyone while player vs. player only appeals to the four or five players who actually have enough time to go for the top. That way month long performance will be what is rewarded. That way, those wish to bank for the last second can do so, but if they did so at the expense of leaving their rivals an uncontested position on the top for 2 weeks, they would lose. Still, the bank will carry a penalty, as you are right, we don't want players using it that much. A longer round would make UP more viable, as it tends to be a long term upgrade. The only problem I have is that it new players tend to only start at the beginning for the round, or when a special ship is introduced. The Nightwasp system would have to be improved upon. Probably a new ship every two weeks. attraction is probably is not going to be happy if the 2 month supporters win the vote.