Message in a Bottle Seventh Edition
PAGES
- Front Page - Message from the Editor
Page 2 - The New Kings
Page 3 - Oh Canada
Page 4 - Fantasy Draft IX
Page 5 - Meet the Crew
Page 6 - Historic Lookback - Valentine's Day
The new kings stand tall and proud regardless altho their courts are .. er ... smaller than one would like .. but its not the 'size of your court that counts' ..is it? 
Channel Islands
growing well and the economy is stable since Nelson stopped fussing around with his influence in Prote some while back...
MIAB reports hearing bucket sharing is no longer the norm. Surely that is a good omen for Channel that the economy is strong indeed. And kfc stores continue to expand too.
Tokelau continues to strive forward in the race to retirement glory - the golden age of retirement right here in Avonmora.. A few young scallies racing around blastin their cannon under the guidance of their vets .. and Tok is steady and secure!
The Bermoodians seem to be going about their thing daily and playing their hands on the down low .. keeping their economy strong and healthy.. Good looking ports in.. er.. hm.Well - Shiver me timbers!! Currently 7 flags on the map and Avonmora is looking lively indeed. Players jumping ship, some expected - some surprising all
..
MIAB wishes all nations great success in their quest to grow and accumulate great wealth and glory here at PG.
.. [img}.https://i.imgur.com/bCmTC2y.png[/img]
At this time Avonmora can boast many rich and successful traders and plant owners sailing their own competitive spirit, pitted against each other in the quest to be the biggest and the best..
Massive daily incomes bring much delight and great deal of chinking of coin!!
Fine robes, great feasts are some perks and of course all those nights in Goroum and the secret .. er .. never mind...
Taking a plush juicy port full of fat and happy PO's and what it takes to swipe one from under some folks long and crinkly nose hairs and build it to something substantial, MIAB reached out to Captain DreadDanik .. who as a relative noob managed to put Bahrain on the map ..
Here he chats about a bit of his experiences on this subject of changing ports. First as a noob with the aforementioned Bahrain and later on the self described 'accidental empire", Mexico[center]
************************
[color=#4040FF]
Oh, Mexico was not the cheekiest one : that was when I was King of Bahrain and stole Neapolis from Barbados.
For context, Barbados was the big dog at the time with a dozen or more ports, Spain had a handful and there were a couple more singletons : so, little- ole- not- much- older- than- a- newbie-me decided to have a port too.
Bad move, for the heavens did open and Sir Henry Morgan dumped upon me... and it was not his finest rum. Still, I held it for a few days before moving to Spain, swearing the deepest of vows of vengeance upon the foul...
Barbudan hordes and a few years later, Bahrain was avenged and Barbados was wiped from the map! Never piss off a camel jockey!Spain had whipped Barbados and owned most of the map. So, the usual rows kicked off : keep them all versus hand-off to new nations.I was in favour of handing them off as our original five ports were more than enough to mind.
I got bored with the rows and decided to quit but as I pretty much owned Prote that went with me.
Love Tiger took Akro with him and we joined Mexico. Then Xanadhu quit to join us bringing the third. To be honest, we never expected it to last but it did and we just had fun creating the Glorious Revolutionary Council of Mexico with free tequila and donkey rides for all.
So a cross between an accidental empire and a somewhat surrealist joke. We did push matters a bit : nobody went for big pops back then but we did...I suspect we were the first to hit a billion in a port. This led to the FOX raid on our Treasury which was also a bit of a first.
We fought them off in a somewhat rancorous dispute which showed up loads of holes and bugs in the voting system, for one. CJ was in Mexico to observe and, to my annoyance, developed port control and voting to make it even easier to run treasury raids. Which us where my disillusionment with both the game and port control began.
Hey ho.. it was both fun and fecking irritating at the same time : there is zero point building a nation and its treasury when stealing it takes a day to flood the ranks yet a nation has no tools to keep them out and every act takes three days to get voted on.
So, we trashed USA and Midway to show how dumb it all was and still nothing changed.. as the raids on Spain showed.Just turn up mob-handed and take it away whenever you fancy it. don't pay too much mind to port stuff anymore : apart from the occasional giggle at the foolishness of it all.
It's a time/coin/credit sink with little relevance to the game itself, no matter how much CJ, and others, wish to elevate it into the pinnacle of achievement. It is simplistic in the extreme : spend a billion plus hundreds of credits on voodoo to 'own' a port which a few hundred credits worth of voodoo can take away from you 24hrs later.
It's nonsense to think it is 'nation' based when one player switching flags can take a port of ports with them. That is interesting because it is exactly how Mexico was born as a port-holding nation. Yes, lots of pretty flags make the map look nicer than whole swathes of mono-cultural sameness but look behind the flags and its the same players just waving a different banner every few months.
As for how the changes affected strategy : it removed the main defence weapon : remember, the defending nation has to react to each move but votes take three days, so you are always 72hours behind! We had one which was to spam 1cr payouts on a rolling schedule. This stopped the attackers putting up their own votes for millions.
Now you cannot do that anymore, or not to other dukes. As for EotC? What the ferking use is that piece of twaddle? Oh, how vicious! We can xall you a nasty name with has zero effect on anything!
Tremble before our might! Recoverable debt?
FOX members still owe billions in unpaid taxes and interest, the biggest offender happily sails his megafleets to this day and it all means nothing except a stupid number on a meaningless list.
Oh, says CJ, you can attack him!
Yep... but how does that get a single due coin into the nation treasury? It does not and that is the crux of it : CJ wants nations to be easily ripped to pieces, he wants ports to change hands daily : all to maintain the instant gratification tendency which rules games these days.
Meh. Not for me.
So, thanks for the interest in an article on the subject raised but I don't see its relevance : its not about 'nations' competing for ports : its about playing musical chairs with random periods before the music starts up again and its all change.
There is common suspicion Daniks' story may have inspired... or so goes the gossip goes ...
******************************************************************************************************************************
EDITORS NOTE**
FEEL FREE RESPOND TO CAPTAIN DANIK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE - OR SEND MIAB A CONTRIBUTION OF YOUR OWN - YOU
KNOW OUR ADDRESS AND WHERE TO FIND US!!
We cant wait to hear your story!
Channel Islands
growing well and the economy is stable since Nelson stopped fussing around with his influence in Prote some while back...MIAB reports hearing bucket sharing is no longer the norm. Surely that is a good omen for Channel that the economy is strong indeed. And kfc stores continue to expand too.
Tokelau continues to strive forward in the race to retirement glory - the golden age of retirement right here in Avonmora.. A few young scallies racing around blastin their cannon under the guidance of their vets .. and Tok is steady and secure!
The Bermoodians seem to be going about their thing daily and playing their hands on the down low .. keeping their economy strong and healthy.. Good looking ports in.. er.. hm.Well - Shiver me timbers!! Currently 7 flags on the map and Avonmora is looking lively indeed. Players jumping ship, some expected - some surprising all
..
MIAB wishes all nations great success in their quest to grow and accumulate great wealth and glory here at PG.
.. [img}.https://i.imgur.com/bCmTC2y.png[/img]
At this time Avonmora can boast many rich and successful traders and plant owners sailing their own competitive spirit, pitted against each other in the quest to be the biggest and the best..
Massive daily incomes bring much delight and great deal of chinking of coin!!
Fine robes, great feasts are some perks and of course all those nights in Goroum and the secret .. er .. never mind...
Taking a plush juicy port full of fat and happy PO's and what it takes to swipe one from under some folks long and crinkly nose hairs and build it to something substantial, MIAB reached out to Captain DreadDanik .. who as a relative noob managed to put Bahrain on the map ..
Here he chats about a bit of his experiences on this subject of changing ports. First as a noob with the aforementioned Bahrain and later on the self described 'accidental empire", Mexico[center]
************************
[color=#4040FF]Oh, Mexico was not the cheekiest one : that was when I was King of Bahrain and stole Neapolis from Barbados.
For context, Barbados was the big dog at the time with a dozen or more ports, Spain had a handful and there were a couple more singletons : so, little- ole- not- much- older- than- a- newbie-me decided to have a port too.
Bad move, for the heavens did open and Sir Henry Morgan dumped upon me... and it was not his finest rum. Still, I held it for a few days before moving to Spain, swearing the deepest of vows of vengeance upon the foul...
Barbudan hordes and a few years later, Bahrain was avenged and Barbados was wiped from the map! Never piss off a camel jockey!Spain had whipped Barbados and owned most of the map. So, the usual rows kicked off : keep them all versus hand-off to new nations.I was in favour of handing them off as our original five ports were more than enough to mind.
I got bored with the rows and decided to quit but as I pretty much owned Prote that went with me.
Love Tiger took Akro with him and we joined Mexico. Then Xanadhu quit to join us bringing the third. To be honest, we never expected it to last but it did and we just had fun creating the Glorious Revolutionary Council of Mexico with free tequila and donkey rides for all.
So a cross between an accidental empire and a somewhat surrealist joke. We did push matters a bit : nobody went for big pops back then but we did...I suspect we were the first to hit a billion in a port. This led to the FOX raid on our Treasury which was also a bit of a first.
We fought them off in a somewhat rancorous dispute which showed up loads of holes and bugs in the voting system, for one. CJ was in Mexico to observe and, to my annoyance, developed port control and voting to make it even easier to run treasury raids. Which us where my disillusionment with both the game and port control began.
Hey ho.. it was both fun and fecking irritating at the same time : there is zero point building a nation and its treasury when stealing it takes a day to flood the ranks yet a nation has no tools to keep them out and every act takes three days to get voted on.
So, we trashed USA and Midway to show how dumb it all was and still nothing changed.. as the raids on Spain showed.Just turn up mob-handed and take it away whenever you fancy it. don't pay too much mind to port stuff anymore : apart from the occasional giggle at the foolishness of it all.
It's a time/coin/credit sink with little relevance to the game itself, no matter how much CJ, and others, wish to elevate it into the pinnacle of achievement. It is simplistic in the extreme : spend a billion plus hundreds of credits on voodoo to 'own' a port which a few hundred credits worth of voodoo can take away from you 24hrs later.
It's nonsense to think it is 'nation' based when one player switching flags can take a port of ports with them. That is interesting because it is exactly how Mexico was born as a port-holding nation. Yes, lots of pretty flags make the map look nicer than whole swathes of mono-cultural sameness but look behind the flags and its the same players just waving a different banner every few months.
As for how the changes affected strategy : it removed the main defence weapon : remember, the defending nation has to react to each move but votes take three days, so you are always 72hours behind! We had one which was to spam 1cr payouts on a rolling schedule. This stopped the attackers putting up their own votes for millions.
Now you cannot do that anymore, or not to other dukes. As for EotC? What the ferking use is that piece of twaddle? Oh, how vicious! We can xall you a nasty name with has zero effect on anything!
Tremble before our might! Recoverable debt?
FOX members still owe billions in unpaid taxes and interest, the biggest offender happily sails his megafleets to this day and it all means nothing except a stupid number on a meaningless list.
Oh, says CJ, you can attack him!
Yep... but how does that get a single due coin into the nation treasury? It does not and that is the crux of it : CJ wants nations to be easily ripped to pieces, he wants ports to change hands daily : all to maintain the instant gratification tendency which rules games these days.
Meh. Not for me.
So, thanks for the interest in an article on the subject raised but I don't see its relevance : its not about 'nations' competing for ports : its about playing musical chairs with random periods before the music starts up again and its all change.
There is common suspicion Daniks' story may have inspired... or so goes the gossip goes ...
******************************************************************************************************************************
EDITORS NOTE**
FEEL FREE RESPOND TO CAPTAIN DANIK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE - OR SEND MIAB A CONTRIBUTION OF YOUR OWN - YOU
KNOW OUR ADDRESS AND WHERE TO FIND US!!
We cant wait to hear your story!
