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PE-WI-Diplo [Kennendras]: Attack on AFENG
Date:Wed, 04 Jun 2003 17:41:23 +0000

The attack on AFENG was previously arranged.  Please disregard them. 
This is not an act of war, just region swapping.  Thank you.

-Kennendras of Astoec


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PE-WI-Diplo [AFENG]: Confirm Kennendras Message
Date:Wed, 04 Jun 2003 18:10:47 +0000

As stated in Kennendras message, those regions were being returned.
Afeng


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PE-WI-Diplo [WI-Independents]: Moderator Notes
Date:Thu, 05 Jun 2003 04:56:21 +0000

First:

The LXG alliance currently controls 163 out of 561 regions.  Since
this is less than the requirement of 1/3, the LXG's 5-turn clock has
stopped.  The BOB group now controls  144 regions. Since this is more
than 2/3 the LXG's size, that also stops the clock.  For both reasons,
therefore, the world will not enter a New Era just yet.


Second:

9 out of 28 nations are now calling for a New Era.  A simple majority
is required, which would be 15 of 28 nations in this case.  (The
Independents are not included.)
With regard to customization of a New Era, some things are easier than
others.  I'm willing to obtain everyone's preferences for allies and
set up some predefined alliances.  I can't easily control borders (too
many regions to edit).  Making WI a closed world is very easy.  Adding
spy features will have to wait until some time after the next
generation of the game software is ready.  

Third:  

An alternative to the New Era approach would be for me to reduce the
maximum possible size of the world (currently 600 regions) in order to
force a Rescaling.
That would tend to shrink the largest nations (but in proportion, so
the rankings don't change), would provide some randomization of
borders (and allow nations to reconfigure their networks as well), and
would generally freshen things up for a while.  If 15 or more nations
ask for a Rescale Now (add RN to your names), rather than waiting for
the world to grow to 600 regions, I'll make that happen.  We could
also consider a combination of setting up some predefined alliances at
the time of the rescaling.  You may want to evaluate the possible
effects of a rescaling on your nation before voting, though!  (If you
have border regions due for rescaling you will end up with new
external connections to explore and then get new neighbors.)

The Moderator



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PE-WI-Diplo [TwoCool]: NE & RN proposal
Date:Fri, 06 Jun 2003 14:29:50 +0000

TwoCool proposes

I propose a modification to the rules of the New Era (NE) and Rescale
Now (RN) ;;alliances;;  to preclude a surprise new era or rescaling
being sprung on some unsuspecting leaders.

Making the NE and RN semi-alliances more like others, I believe a four
consecutive turn requirement for a simple majority (one leader beyond
half) and a two consecutive turn requirement for a super majority (two
thirds of all leaders) be met for several reasons. With the added
requirement that a super majority ;;reign;; be preceded by a simple
majority for one turn or that the reign be extend to three turns to
give leaders being incommunicado for two turns a chance to react.

With vacations, business, and other types of respites from the Web of
Intrigue for two turns or so, some leader could be in for quite a turn
of events when returning to the web. These added turn requirements
would mitigate some of these surprises. I realize some people take
breaks for three turns and beyond, but I have no sympathy for these
people since I no longer have this luxury.

I also believe this would increase the importance of diplomacy in the
latter stages of a game.  The minority or potentially minority group
of NE or non-NE leaders can debate the merits of a new era and
possibly sway some leaders one way or the other. This with the
apparently legal (perhaps the Supreme Bob can talk to this), multiple
alliance configurations that have come in vogue does add some spice to
the game, if not some complexity in figuring out if the game is over,
to be resized or restarted.

end proposal


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PE-WI-Diplo [Kennendras]: Agreed
Date:Fri, 06 Jun 2003 14:50:32 +0000

I aggree with TwoCool's suggestion.  THis game is made for those that
have a life, this should be no different.

With that being said, i think a New Era would be better than a
Rescale.  With a rescale, only those on top are hurt.  That and there
are good chances of having lots of bugs.  :)  A new era would allow
totaly equal chances for all.  Just my opinions of course.

-Kennendras of Astoec


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PE-WI-Diplo [Huitzilopochtli]: Re: Agreed
Date:Fri, 06 Jun 2003 23:46:30 +0000

Note: I apologize in advance - maybe if anyone likes the idea I'm
putting forth then they'll forgive the length of this message :)


I'm in favor of starting a New Era - much for the same reason stated
by Kennendras (only the top ranking leaders are hurt by a rescale),
and also because I like exploring and meeting new neighbors.  Being
that this is my first time leading a nation in Power's Edge, I think I
might do things a little differently given a fresh start.

As far as alliances in a New Era, instead of having preexisting
alliances, I would propose the following (and this wouldn't require
any changes to the game - we could just use it as-is and play it in a
completely different way):

We start with random placement as usual, and play normally for a set
amount of time (say 15 or 20 turns).  At the end of this initial
period, we are forced to form alliances with our neighbors.  We get to
decide for ourselves which neighbors to include, but each alliance is
limited to 5 or 6 leaders (and maybe has to have a minimum of 4
leaders).  Also, once you're in an alliance, you're in it for good
until you resign (so if a leader becomes inactive or unresponsive,
he'd better hope that his allies don't get angry about this and attack
him so they can get a new, active member from their unaligned
neighbors).  

With this setup we aren't necessarily forced to ally ourselves with
(1) leaders we don't like/don't know or (2) people who don't share
borders with us (after all, diplomacy would be difficult if we didn't
have any trade routes between our nations, don't you think?).

If a leader didn't join an alliance, they could either join one later
(if there's space) or be forced to remain neutral (no way to win the
game).  Leaders who join after t15 or t20 (or whatever we decide on)
could join alliances as they meet people as long as there is room in
the alliance.  As far as winning the game, alliances can band
together, but unaligned leaders can't just join with a bunch of
alliances in order to win.

In this setup, we would still form new borders after forming our
alliances, so you couldn't possibly have *only* allies as neighbors. 
Also, if leaders wanted, they could wait to name their nations until
they formed alliances, so if leaders wanted to change their names and
name their regions according to some theme, they could. 
I think this in particular could be very fun and interesting, and Bob
wouldn't have to do any extra work making rule changes for us and
could use the time instead to create other worlds for other leaders
yet to come.

~Huitz



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PE-WI-Diplo [Kennendras]: Re: Agreed
Date:Sat, 07 Jun 2003 01:21:50 +0000

Great idea!  I vote for that one.  It will allow a much more
interesting game.

-Kennendras of Astoec


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PE-WI-Diplo [WI-Independents]: Mystery Bug
Date:Mon, 09 Jun 2003 20:08:26 +0000

Hi everyone - 

Sorry about the crash of the Web of Intrigue update.
I'm on travel this week and can't fix whatever crashed.
It looks as though the updater is still alive, so the other 
games should continue to work, but there is probably some damage 
to the Web of Intrigue data file which I can't fix until I get home.
Therefore, I am going to freeze Web of Intrigue until
I can track down the bug and repair the game data files.  
The other games will continue to run but Web of Intrigue will not
update on Wednesday and probably not on this coming Saturday 
either (unless I can track this bug down in record time).  
Once we're ready to go, I'll reuse the inputs that were submitted
for last Saturday, so there's no need to submit new moves. 

-- The Moderatorr


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PE-WI-Diplo [My Pretty Pony]: vacation
Date:Thu, 12 Jun 2003 17:14:32 +0000

Sorry for the extra message. I just noticed that within-order messages
are no longer possible. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that ponies
will be on vacation in England, Belgium, and Switzerland for the next
month, so won't be doing much. That may be long enough for us to lose
our pastures. If so, we would appreciate it if nobody took over pony
pastures until they became independent. We may be able to tell ponies
where to run a couple times from some internet cafe while we're
travelling, so don't assume that we've given up.

We've also been out of things for a little while because I broke my
left front leg bone up by the shoulder playing ultimate frisbee (I
know that seems like an odd game for a pony to play). I had to have a
plate put in to get the bones back together, so now I'll be making the
security screens go nuts every time I fly (if they're not already
surprised by my equineness). I hope we haven't messed up the
restarting plans by not joining an alliance, but it was too much to
figure out from my vicadin haze. :-) 

Lovies!


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PE-WI-Diplo [Kennendras]: Short Leave of Duty
Date:Fri, 13 Jun 2003 12:24:23 +0000

The Ruling House of Taedynn would like to announce a small absence by
the Emperor Kennendras.  He will be occupied in foreign affairs
(concerning beaches and other official matters).

The Emperor will not be likely to recieve or send any document for the
next week or so.  Thankyou.

-Ruling House of Taedynn