/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

This might be interesting so I'll bump.
>Preferably we should be in the same region so we can protect each other if we'd be smaller.
Does it matter if my nation is created in the neighboring region? I wanted to create a nation in Central Europe and I assume that's your nation in Eastern Europe, does the regions have a distance to each other gameplay wise?

>>136476
They can be in bordering regions. Nations cannot attack or defend each other if they're not either in the same region, or a region bordering theirs until they reach a navy count of 51 ships, so Central Europe is fine.

>>136477
I have changed my mind about the region, my nation Sirocco is also in Eastern Europe.

>>136489
Invite should be sent.

>>136468
Nation
Pones of Sunset
Leader
Anonymous Shimmer

Also in Eastern Europe

>>136492
Invite sent.

As a general rule, don't attack nations in other alliances unless we are at war with them. Nations without an alliance are fair game

>>136496
Thanks.
Well, sold off state assests for some sweet cash, saw that there is oil in the country, and built a mine.
The county is only in chaos for one turn, because clicking random buttons is fun.

>>136507
Nice.
Turn changes happen twice, one at 8:00 PM (EST) and one at 8 AM (EST).
Some things you can only do once in one turn, such as invading nations or a few domestic/economic policies. Turn changes haven't started yet, but as a general rule it's best to focus on some RM production, a little bit of oil production, while keeping food high, using the rest to help expand airforce/navy as well as increase your weapon technology.
https://pastebin.com/jg8w1EUJ
This guide is a bit out of date but with Europe, research is double the amount of other regions. Therefore the most profit could be made with universities and high literacy in order to either sell off research or use it in production of nukes.

>>136511
Good to know. Thanks.
/)

Deponya, in Eastern Europe
This game looks like a combination of NationStates and Stargate Universe Wars, hopefully there's more point to it than either.

>>136521
Invited.
It's basically if you were to take Nationstates and added war to it. The politics tends to be the fun part about it. If I recall this used to be huge back in 2013-2015 with a few 4chan boards participating.

>>136522
Thanks. Also I went through the world map and it looks like almost everyone is West-aligned. That's disappointing because I was hoping for more division along those lines.

>>136529
Yeah, unfortunately Eastern aligned nations/alliances are rare due to them being like a goldmine for west-aligned nations, plus they're usually attacked first because communism. If you attack a nation of your own alignment you lose a small amount of alignment points with your own alignment. Attack the opposite alignment and you gain a few alignment points for your own alignment. Although depending on what your nation status is (capitalist/command, Us-aligned/soviet, alliance-alignment), your alignment points naturally build up over time and so you can spend the shit on free weapons/airforce (to a certain amount).

>>136530
>tfw game mechanics follow the excuse for why modern socialists claim their crap system always fails

If we ever get powerful we should go east-aligned as a meme to buck the trend, especially since we have our backs to the Soviets and there are only three alliances within striking distance. We'd have to be fully decked out though with nukes and everything. Though, to get nukes we'd need a lot more, so I wager the order to do things is industrialize>militarize>research. Also land area is a constraining factor and we start out the size of Slovenia or 1/6th of the disputed border territory between China and India. Looks like the only way to get swol is by conquering land so once we're up for that we could use some confidential warplans and expand without putting ourselves at risk.

Also sorry to derail, but I want to know opinions on this before making a thread. I used to play a loosely Star Trek-based strategy game (which skirts copyright law) called Space Trek: the New Empire and it's quite in-depth. You don't have "click this and X happens" buttons but rather buildings, resources, and ships you build/trade/fly yourself. As the name implies you colonize a specific area of space in the galaxy and the game is very open-ended in becoming an economic or military power. Link is https://game.en.stne.net/ and the wiki is at http://wiki.en.stne.net/index.php/Main_Page

The community on EN1 is exceptionally good, though mostly made of boomers, and there are actual people on the NPC factions who run events to keep the game exciting. I stopped playing years ago because it took much of my time every day but I would be willing to get back into it for a tight-knit alliance (and I know enough to get it going). Be warned, though: it takes a significant waiting period to get enough research for even basic ship construction, and the complex supply chain mechanics makes an upkeep-heavy economy necessary to be efficient (though you can use macros to automate most of it). Also, unlike BLOC the game is very pay-to-win with purchasable currency necessary to upgrade colony and ship slots as well as to buy superior ships (though the expense means few get anything other than economically productive ships), but you can buy this currency from others with in-game resources. The game is over ten years old but is slowly dying since wars between super-factions caused more players to quit (from losing everything) than anything else.

If you're at all interested I recommend trying it out for yourself. Unlike with BLOC you start out in a "noob-zone" and can stay there indefinitely until you want to teleport someplace in the galaxy. If the mechanics and community appeal to a handful of poners I'll set up a thread for establishing an alliance; otherwise, no harm done.

Is the Nike Event good to take?

Growth is about to reach unsustainable levels wat do?

>>136564
>>136565
Nike event is generally good to take as long as you have money to spend on an RM fac/Oil rig to help sustain it. When growth becomes unsustainable it'll usually level off without any effort required, just make sure your actual GDP doesn't become larger than your natural GDP or it'll bring your economy into a recession.

>>136563
Seems interesting, I'd have to give it a shot. Although pay-to-win games are something I generally dislike with a passion.

>>136566
Thank you. I'll make sure that a recession doesn't happen.
>pic related is the 100% literacy for all the research all the time

>>136567
>>136568
Question: is this game/server new? Because it seems like none of the countries are far ahead other players like in Nationstates or STNE, unless if there's some weird capping mechanism. If it is new we stand a pretty good chance of being regional powers at least.

>>136569
The game is usually reset every few months. A general rule is that when nukes start flying and some of the major alliances are beaten by other major alliances, that's cause for a reset. Everybody goes back to 300 million GDP, no alliance, etc. The game reset yesterday which I thought was the appropriate time to make the thread.

As far as I know, the way the new system is, instead of manpower being a way to recruit military, it's now at a maximum of 10% of your population. If you have 200,000 people (starting pop) then typically you will only be able to recruit up to 20,000 soldiers.

I started playing this game in 2012 with /mlp/'s ACE and I can honestly say it's one of the worst browser games on the internet. Every time you think it can't possibly get any worse Rumsod finds some way to shit it up even harder. The game has been more or less dead ever since cumsock deleted the forums, which eliminated most inter-alliance player interaction. Thus in nu-Bloc you don't get to really talk with any players outside your alliance's shitcord, as the game's "official" shitcord is even deader than the game itself. There are also ridiculous penalties for war now, further discouraging player interaction. I think this latest iteration might have actually ended with less than 200 active players, which is really bad compared to the game at its peak.

Bloc could still be fun if you join an alliance with a cohesive group of friends or e-friends who know how to game the system for maximum mayhem, but after this last iteration all the oldfags decided to quit, so I don't really see the appeal in signing up again.

>>136572
Should still be fun to mess with every now and then. Shitposting makes it fun

Is there a discord for diplomacy?
Or do I just post here?

>>136576
Currently we don't have a discord and I don't think plan on having one, mostly any alliance discussion we have will either be through here or through in-game alliance chat. You can contact Peppermint#0165 for any diplomatic affairs

The Nation of Deponya thanks the Pones of Sunset for their generous loan of manufactured goods and we will pay it back quickly. What's the best research to grow fast with? I (and I'm guessing everyone else) have a 100 research points to spend.
Also, we should see about an industrialization plan. I must be doing something right because Deponya has the second-largest GDP in the Alliance (and 3rd-largest in the region) and a decent resources sector (though I've invested nothing into my military and probably will wait on doing that until I'm out of protection). In what order should mines, wells, and factories be prioritized? Also try to encourage foreign investment, it's much less costly.

As for offensive actions, we should consider launching a joint attack on Prozadia in the near future. He seems moderately powerful but he doesn't belong to an alliance and is East-Aligned so may be a good target to consider. There are weaker alternatives as well. Remember to recruit an intelligence agent and stick him in your country for now so we can coordinate later!

My long-term strategy idea: during this game (and probably for the next ones until we get a lot of people to hop on) we will always be playing second fiddle, either to Mercenary Corps in the south, Pirate MMP in the north, or Invictus in the west. What we can do is play them off each other or throw our lots alongside the apparent winner, shifting the balance of power in a small way. Personally I bet on Pirate MMP because they are also dominant in the Subcontinent and the East Indies and are competing with Invictus in Arabia, so if they get navy they could be beastly. However Mercenary Corps is very strong in Europe and could wipe the floor with us if we're not careful. ESFe is a secondary power in Europe though they're not directly competing with us yet.

Though we're getting to be decently industrialized our average oil/raw material production is laughably low, even compared to the big alliances which must have a lot of deadweight. We do have one advantage few others do, and it's that being so close together we're much less vulnerable. We're essentially the Visegrad Group.

Also after quickly looking through neighboring regions it looks like Prozadia, and everyone else of any worth, has an airforce of "meagre" and larger, better trained army. I'll save up for another oil well (I got lucky with my initial exploration) so I can get planes from the U.S.

Also of note: SPB DYMM YDPA (Pirate MMP, Invictus) is already on 2nd World War surplus though he lacks an airforce.

What kind of Intel unit would you guys suggest at first, or does it matter?

Today I learned in magic poner land that trying to sell nonexistent national state assets isn't possible.
Instead the food (abundance) crisis continues to lower the natural GDP. I don't know the game, but would people need food in bulk for international markets?

>>136586
Neat thing is no one has a navy yet, that could be a quick way to remove 2k troops without a loss.

>>136587
I went with intelligence specialty because at least in the early game getting intel might be helpful. I really have no idea, though.
>I don't know the game, but would people need food in bulk for international markets?
Just like irl an agricultural society will remain poor. Eventually you'll need to balance out agricultural production with your pop and military size (that's what the "Green Revolution" is for) but your focus now should be on mines and oil wells. They'll boost your GDP more than farms, and factories even moreso.

>Neat thing is no one has a navy yet, that could be a quick way to remove 2k troops without a loss.
The guide implies that aircraft are much more effective than ships for their cost, and at this stage of the game manufactured goods are extremely scarce. Also it's a safe bet when you're new to copy what the "big boys" are doing rather than try an experimental strategy.

>>136585
I would say mines should be prioritized after your 2nd or 3rd oil well. You don't want to have too many oil rigs unless you're in the middle east because it'll drain your reserves fast. Mines are your 2nd best bet besides factories and universities. Because Europe offers 2x the research that a nation would normally get, it would be great to either sell your research for a good price, or use it in the production of nukes if you ever get any uranium mines.
>>136587
I'd say we should focus on coordinated attacks first, and see what alliance has the most power in our region and try to ally closer with them.

>>136592
Also forgot to mention, you can use it in the research tab to boost the production of anything by at least 10%

>>136593
Does improving the factories and weapons protection also include universities?

>>136594
No, I believe it only includes facs and weapons production.

Someone is buying loads of raw material and oil.

Tadas is the only one online in the region atm. It could have increased while away.

>>136592
Thanks a lot, especially for the tip about research. Remember to boost your literacy as much as you can! Also it looks like research costs scale a lot for every advancement you make, even if it's a different tech.

If you're west-aligned remember to get more m14s every turn, because your relationship with the U.S. will increase by a minimum of 6 while the rifles cost 5. This is the only way we can increase weapons count until we establish domestic production. I think if we ever go for nukes only one of us should focus on it since it's such a huge and risky investment.

I'm guessing the only real way to increase stability is to wait. It'll take me a whopping 20 days to reach maximum stability!

>>136566
So how bad is a recession?

>>136603
Anything above a growth of I believe either -10 or -20 will result in you losing a significant amount of both stability and approval per turn if I remember correctly.

Going to be starting a new program, because of our low population and low number of nations, I'll be shipping a random nation in our alliance 10k troops per turn. This will help build up most of our military size, and since I can recruit soldiers up to a certain military size (10% of population) it'll be replenishable. Just make sure not to deconscript during this period because any extra troops you get above 20k you won't be able to get back without someone sending them to you.

>>136606
Sounds good. If there's anything I can do to help I'll try.

>>136606
I was going to wait until the last few days of protection to go on a conscription/training spree because every $20k troops reduces economic growth by $1 million, and you can conscript a lot of troops each turn.

>>136641
True. Unfortunately you can only give soldiers once per turn so it'd put a soft limit on conscription/training.

>>136645
Should I save up for "Military-Industrial Complex" or keep investing oil into jets and raw materials into foreign investment? Foreign investment is a great way to expand production cheaply but I want to get it up to a constant level where Nike Factory might trigger. How much FI should I have for that?

>>136647
Military industrial complexes give 1 weapon per turn unless you have research invested, which will give you extra. I'd say keep investing oil into jets until you get to about 5 planes. Otherwise I'd say you're good. Nobody is sure exactly how much foreign investment is needed, but it should be a reasonably high amount, somewhere in the triple digits. Nike event is a random chance. Just make sure not to overshoot your natural GDP and have it rebound.

I've noticed that the biggest, most prosperous countries in Europe tend to have as many as 20+ mines, no oil production and little investment into stability. Is this the meta?

Also what's the best research to go down? I have one level each in oil production and mining. I think I'll split my research 50/50 into domestic use and foreign sale.

As for military, we should remember to get ready because once the seven days are up there may be a rush on the unallied/do-nothing nations for land. We should start on the weakest, and there are plenty of these countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Be mindful that the Balkans are crowded with alliance players and there may not be enough to go around there.

>>136650
As a good rule of thumb, it's best to invest mostly in Industrial Technology while in Europe. Not only does it boost manufactured goods, but also weapon production. Just make sure to keep stability medium, healthcare at least 50%, and literacy extremely high, preferably in the 90% range. Also, mines in Europe are used mainly for economic purposes rather than actual RM usage, such as leveling off an economy or boosting it.
Also yes, before the seven days are up we should build up and get ready to look for unaligned nations once it's up.

Sirocco station here
Thanks for the manpower (10k troops) and the food.
>>136651
I have failed to build factories because I have messed up at the beginning. So I tried to get the raw materials for that until now and Nike decided to build a factory in my nation, and I accepted. Is it normal that industrialization costs 150 raw materials now? It used to be 50. Or does the price go up when building facs?

>>136654
Price goes up when building either a university, factory, or weapons factory for all 3.

Thanks for the manpower! For some reason, when I try conscripting a second time I get the message "All of the available manpower has already been thrown into the meatgrinder!" I really should have more manpower than 2000 and I thought I could conscript 5 times a turn. Is this not the case?

>>136655
Yes, the increase in costs is quite steep but I can see why it's implemented to prevent snowballing.

>>136656
Unfortunately it's no longer based on manpower but rather 10% of your population. You can still lend troops to others but producing troops past your population limit is impossible. I'm not a big fan of the change but it does decrease your tech level instead of your growth.

>>136657
Well, that must be how such nations as Athens in the Balkans are way above their force limit. I guess this means we should come up with a system where one or two of us are the military bulwark while the others send over new troops.

>>136658
Yeah. I was thinking of providing 10k troops per each nation each turn, then after a certain point after we're at least 150k-200k we can redistribute to a good amount. Each of us would be fairly strong. It'd take about half a month but it'd be well worth it.

>>136659
I've been meaning to ask: how long do these games last? Given such a long-term strategy I'd guess at least a month or two. Do major wars break out immediately or do alliances start fighting only when there's no more unaligned land left?

>>136660
Usually they last anywhere between 2 - 4 months. Major wars usually only break out when there's no unaligned land left and there's border disputes or drama between major alliances. Generally the iteration ends when nukes start flying and one major alliance wins over the other. If I recall producing nukes in of itself is a challenge, because there's a 1% chance of each mine you produce being a uranium mine, so developing a reactor requires a large sum of money and uranium each turn, forgot the amount. The nuke itself costs 500,000k and 50 uranium and reduces your target's troops by 75%, half of navy, half of airforce, -100 growth, and half of their factories.

Completed an exchange of 50 research for $2000k. I put a quarter of that into the alliance bank.

Mutual Defense Pact signed with Pirate MMP

>>136671
Nice, I think their position in the north means we won't get drawn into anything right away. Also I've just expanded raw material production to 12 (plus 1.2 from research).

Well, having tons of food as the food market collapses sucks. Mines are hanging on by a thread due to the insane price. If anyone does some market fuckery it'll be unfun times.
I may have boned myself.
Only things stable are the things I don't have in bulk, namely weapons and manufactured goods. Which also happens to be things not alot of other people have.
It's all in good fun, but man seeing the -48 growth was scary.

>>136698
Is that you, Sunset? Generally speaking, food is a terrible resource to trade early game (from my assumption) because it's produced from spare land and everyone has lots of spare land. It'll be valuable only later on when lack of farmland and huge armies demand food supply; until then it's best to save up.

I'm in a great place because since I've gotten my factory I've invested consistently in resource production, particularly mines, and this constant investment means GDP will never catch up to potential GDP in the foreseeable future. We can get an economic aid package to you to help get you back on your feet.

>>136698
Might have to have a couple of oil wells and try to put your nation on a slow decline, to where growth is down to reasonable levels (like maybe 5-10 million per month), that way you won't overshoot your natural GDP by a significant amount.

>>136704
>I'm in a great place because since I've gotten my factory I've invested consistently in resource production, particularly mines, and this constant investment means GDP will never catch up to potential GDP in the foreseeable future.
Nice.
I just have too much gdp, and growth.
>Food is lategame when every one has big armies to feed, and all the land is for make the stuff. Hoard carefully.
Got it.

>>136709
That sounds like a plan. Once growth is no longer in the hundreds maintaining something reasonable shouldn't be insane.

Can anything on the market ever be worth zero or less?

>>136728
I don't think that's how markets work.

>>136728
The only thing I've seen on the market reach close to zero was food. Theoretically yes if you were to absolutely flood the market. I've seen the price of selling food reach -0.01k but it was mostly a glitch. It went back to positive a few minutes later.

Oof, I got the mine closure event. I chose to lower the mininum wage since approval and QoL are going up anyway.

>>136733
Yeah, that's usually the bad part about using your investments to build mines or oil rigs. If your approval and QOL is too low it's better to just nationalize it, so you can privatize your nation later and get it back to free market.

Speaking of which for any of you still unaligned I'd go ahead and align yourself with the US under foreign policies, it helps with building your reputation and allowing you to get shit like guns or planes.

I can see what you mean about overshooting GDP, my potential GDP hasn't been rising and in two turns it will be overshot. Should I build mines or oil wells to do something about this?

Also, interesting that Pirate MMP signed a MDP with us and the the third-largest alliance. It's a great move on their part, since the first and third-largest alliances can easily overwhelm the second-largest (textbook geostrategy), and we can defend their scattered members in northern Europe. However the Mercenary Corps have a coalition of mid-sized alliances with a huge presence in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, to the point we wouldn't stand a chance if war between the two factions broke out. It would have been better imo to join the second group, but it's too late now and we can't go back on our word. Not really a complaint, but I think major foreign policy decisions should be discussed among us first if possible.

Also is it just me or is BLOC running slow?

>>136735
Yeah, fair point. Anything else from here on out regarding diplomacy will be discussed with you guys first before action is taken.
BLOC usually runs slow sometimes depending on what's happening. Most of the time it's fixed within half a day or so.
On GDP, go ahead and let it pass a tiny bit so that when your growth is decreasing, as soon as it hits somewhere like 10 - 20 million per month, go ahead and start spamming oil rigs or mines so that it can be stabilized. Keep track of your Nat. GDP and if you want to grow your economy to earn more money, just be sure you don't grow it too fast to where it'll make you overshoot and bring you to the negatives.

Also, previously I tried signing an MDP with Invictus, the result was kind of funny. Pirate MMP is historically the best-performing alliance in terms of military and growth so that's why I chose them as my second option.

>>136736
>economic advice
>tfw game mechanics follow what Keynesians claim to be able to do

>diplomacy
Yep, it looks like Invictus hasn't been doing too well in terms of diplomacy and they've gotten isolated for now. Mercenary Corps forming a broad coalition surprised me too and I doubt they offered us an invitation, though who knows if approaching them would have worked. Pirate MMP isn't bad at all and Sovereign League has a decent presence here as well, though with what looks like newer players.

By the way, if you want to send me troops best to do so now. I want to invest into training my army to a decent standard.

Huh so horsefuckers did remake alliance. It has been long time since I have seen it.

>>136745
My bad, wasn't able to send it until later

Good news, I think my economy shouldn't spiral out of control. Bad news I accidentally sold 20 units of mg.
Re-nationalized everything so selling it again for a rainy day is possible.
On the bright side I have metric fucktons of mines, and everything else is looking good.

Interesting how everyone who's part of an alliance has left protection while those without an alliance are still all protected. Is it going to remain this way (which would be stupid imo) or will it just take longer for these presumably newer countries to leave protection?

I got my military training up to "good." Should I invest more into that or should I save up to buy 10 oil for 2 more airplanes?

>>136793
It'll take longer for the newer countries to leave protection. It's according to sign-up date instead of by iteration. 7 days of protection starts as soon as you sign up.
Military training is good for now, you should save up to buy airplanes, although if you're at small (5 planes), then you're okay for now. RM and Oil should be saved up for any future factories or universities if possible.

>>136806
Got the timing wrong off by a day, sorry. Does the protection timer go by time or by turn (that is, the start of next turn)?
Also, I officially will be going above natural GDP next turn if I don't do anything. Can and should I do anything about that? The cost of buying oil to expand my fleet of airplanes to 5 might not leave enough left for another mine or well.

>>136815
I'm not honestly sure. It could be either one, but I'd assume by turn?

For right now, save as much money as you can by possible and wait for your growth to go between 10 - 20, or even in the single digits. Then buy a bunch of oil or mines until your natural GDP is about 100 or so above your GDP. I'll take some money out of the alliance bank for you if you need it.

>>136815
Well I've been above Natural gdp for a while. The growth has a sliding modifier that reduces growth. But the current level of growth will keep going for a while.
I had an event about slums and rising crime, but I haven't seen a noticeable difference yet

I checked the region map we're all able to be targeted for war. (Or declare war.)
The only other people are in alliances at the moment. Also I'd assume spys and stuff are being sent.

>>136820
Yeah. You've got to be careful when it comes to that though, before you know it you can have a nat gdp that's at least 500 below and be stuck with growth decreasing by -50 each turn.

When it comes to war, no alliance targeting for now, however any allianceless nations are fair game. I believe the general consensus for alliance nations are if they're inactive for over 60 hours, you can target them. If they come online before you capital march though, it's customary to peace them. No rules apply for allianceless nations, except for not "stealing" land from another invader. If you see someone invade that nation first, you can invade them but make sure they capital march before you do.

>>136820
Good to know. I think we should coordinate any spy stuff in Alliance Chat which is secure. Mine has been sitting in my country getting points.

>>136821
Hopefully I don't zoom that far past! I'll try to slow my growth to sustainable levels. How exactly does natural GDP rise?

Also what's a capital offensive?

>>136824
Natural GDP can rise or fall depending on the markets. If you click on your Gross Domestic Product number it should show the total value of all your oil rigs, mines, factories/wep factories, and food. If some idiot decides to sell 1,000 mines, the price of mines will fall and so will your Natural GDP.

Capital Marching is when a nation has at least, I believe, 6k soldiers or less. When that happens, if you march using land offensive, you will end the war and acquire a portion of the nation's GDP, land, and any other resources they might have had.

>>136824
Natural gdp is based on workers working and market value of the resource (at least for farming)
Farming has (units of food × selling point market value in free market[maybe])+farmers working
Roughly.

The other stuff I haven't crunched, but it's a rough estimate.
>>136826
>If some idiot decides to sell 1,000 mines, the price of mines will fall and so will your Natural GDP.
This, rip hundreds of gdp in food production.
>Capital Marching is when a nation has at least, I believe, 6k soldiers or less. When that happens, if you march using land offensive, you will end the war and acquire a portion of the nation's GDP, land, and any other resources they might have had.
Neat.

>>136826
>>136827
Good to know about natural GDP though I wish I knew how to calculate it.

>When that happens, if you march using land offensive, you will end the war and acquire a portion of the nation's GDP, land, and any other resources they might have had.
Nice. I guess regular wars are meant to simulate border conflicts, whereas capital marching involves totally breaking enemy resolve to fight and actually taking some core territory. If I'm not mistaken each of us can wage only one war a turn, therefore we need to be judicious in picking which countries to "claim" because it will take multiple days to crack their armies and dismantle the countries. Others will be claiming nations in East Europe as well so there's diplomacy involved to make sure we get enough.

>>136834
As far as I know, you can have up to 3 defensive wars and 3 offensive wars. If you were to attack three countries however, as soon as you capital marched a country, it would show you as no longer being at war with the other two (for some reason). The same doesn't apply to defensive wars.

I think it would be better in that case if we went after overlapping countries. Though our militaries are reasonably powerful I don't know if they could take on 3 nations each with 20k troops.

Well, I made a mistake. A new player offered to sell me oil (which I need to fill out my airforce to 5) but after I wired him half the cash amount I find out players can't send resources until they have a GDP of $310 million. Also I forgot that with the cost of tariffs I probably would have been better off just buying it on the market.
https://oppressive.games/bloc/stats.php?id=15563

>>136868
Well an IOU will work of he pays it back.
In anycase how much oil did you need?

>>136869
I need 3.9 oil to finish my air force, though I would need more to actually use it. Otherwise I'm saving my money while keeping domestic QoL up.

Alliance chat is bugged so I'll post here. I scouted in our and neighboring regions and these are juicy targets I found:

East Europe:
Commieland, 8000 troops
Strakia 2 factories but 20k troops (I don't know if we can conquer factors, pogchamp moment if we can)
Emristan 9000 troops
Bashkortostan 9000 troops

Central Europe:
Slovan, 8000 troops
HESHAM, 8000 troops
Chacaski, 10k troops

Northern Europe
Elvoreto, high GDP, but 20k troops
IQ GOOD, ditto
Ponderosa, high GDP, 9000 troops
Scandinavian, 10k troops

If these targets leave protection seize the opportunity before someone else does. Eastern Europe is our turf so that gets priority, but if there is a country in another region not "claimed" by someone else I recommend going for it. Just remember to look at their stats so you don't accidentally declare on someone with 20k+ elite troops!

Also looks like Prozadia's already getting targeted by Mercenary Corps. We might want to engage in outreach with the latter to make sure we don't butt heads over targets.

Pakhtun is open for a spot
>>136871
>>136869

>>136871
Also, unfortunately with many of those nations they have either already been invaded or have been offline for over a certain amount of time so they can't be invaded

>>136873
Alright, I'm going after him.

>>136874
Cursed. Somehow so many nations disappeared all at once. Does this always happen?

>>136878
Pakhtun unsurprisingly is already in 3 defensive wars and I don't want to barge in. How did so many countries get deleted? Were they eaten so fast or did they get deleted for inactivity?

>>136879
>>136878
No, it doesn't always happen. It'll usually happen after three months of inactivity, but apparently there's been a lot of nations cheating that are being deleted.

>>136881
Unsurprising as I doubt this game gets so much publicity that new players will "try it" and log out. However the inability to expand does through a monkey wrench into my plans. Where do we go from here?

>>136882
Honestly, I'd say we wait for the first opportunity of land to take. In the meantime we should build up our facs, weapons, and troops so that when shit does hit the fan (usually halfway in to the iteration) we can be prepared to either defend or attack. We can make up for lack of land by investing more into researched facs/mines/rigs in order to decrease space that they take up with bought research, or just have a fuckton of universities so we can make it ourselves.

Sooner or later tensions will most likely rise between Invictus and Pirate. If we get called to action through the mutual defense pact then we have an excuse to go after a ton of land. Although at that point we'd need to make sure we'd have a ton of planes, navy, and troops. I'm currently slowly building up our alliance's troops, with each nation getting 10k troops per about one and a half days. A little while longer and we'd be able to get 100k troops and more.

>>136883
Sounds good. I vote on building universities and specializing with research because it's incredibly valuable. I've been selling 50 research to Mines for $2250k but he's Invictus, and either he's distributing this research or he'll use it to make nukes. I think we should negotiate an equivalent deal with Akhlaken or whoever is the representative of Pirate MMP to get an equivalent deal.

On the plus side the lack of massive invasions into neutral territory means our reputation won't go down, making it still possible to buy 2 weapons every turn. I won't be getting any more planes from the U.S. because the 6th one costs 26 relationship points. This means to expand our airforce we will need more factories.

>>136883
>>136884
Getting universities will help with the research improvement loop.
If land is a concern reducing urban size could also be considered, but other things for fast building and gathering of stuffs would be nice.

>>136885
Also is a second spy worth it and if so what kind should he be?

>>136886
I have no idea. I've never played this game before. I'd assume it would be good to have a spy charging up, but without a stable country and stuff I don't know the correct usage of spys.

> is a second spy worth
No unless you got big pile of cash which you have no where else to spend sure.
I have tried spy rush. It is just that spies relative to cost don't do much unless in very large numbers
Fund oppositon. Just hits approval which isnt that hard to raise
Arm rebels. Rebels are easy to deal with
Sabotage wells/mines. Well that is one mine or well gone sucks but nothing too great

Poisining food and mutiny unless fixed dont do anything

Terrorist attack just hits stability and to keep yourself from stab reset isn't hard if you got some cash

But there are a lot of places you can spend your cash first

>>136886
It depends. Your first spy should always be a spy hunter for your nation, to make sure that nobody is trying to sabotage anything or trying to reveal confidential information. Your second spy can be useful for any offensive wars where you're either trying to incite revolts or instability within someone's nation.

I asked the Mercenaries and I was told it's okay to go after Prozadia. I'll attack him before this tick earns. Be wary, though, as despite the barrage of attacks he hasn't given up and still keeps his troops at an elite level.

My natural GDP hasn't been going up so I built a few more oil wells. I'll probably get some mines too to push that up. Unfortunately I cannot declare on Prozadia because that would make me a "vulture" and an "opportunist." Hopefully I don't need to wait long.

>>136921
He must've already lost a war. You'd have to wait for around 1-3 days to attack

>>136922
Yeah one of the Mercenaries was wailing on him and I asked their leader if I could have a shot at it. It never hurts to ask! I'll try every turn until I get it. Interesting though that Prozadia formed an alliance with other newbies. Tbh I wouldn't be entirely opposed to him trying to join us, but he's not nor/mlpol/ice. By the way, look at our average growth in alliance statistics, we need to figure out a way to get that higher but sustainably.

>>136923
>By the way, look at our average growth in alliance statistics, we need to figure out a way to get that higher but sustainably.
If we balance out having a high natural GDP with an incredibly high number of military troops, the growth could be stable and sustainable, as if I recall growth is -1 per 20k troops.

>Unfortunately I cannot declare on Prozadia

just wait few days war lost protection will go away and you will be able to attack that sweat peace of meat. Unless that other MC guy won't finish him

Somehow flip floped again from commie command markets to ancap town to benevolent dictatorship with money and stuff.
Also disappointed that selling all assets only gave 300k instead of the huge stated amount.

My natural GDP is now only $200 million behind my current GDP thanks to oil well and mine investment last turn. I could boost it with more mines but I have enough raw materials for a university. Should I buy up enough oil (this time from someone able to provide) to build a university? I need a whopping 42 more oil which would take me 7 turns to produce on my own. Actually, I should be able to buy that much this turn if the price remains stable.

Looks like a lot of others are saving up for a factory so oil is hard to get. We really need to establish a trade deal with someone in the Middle East who can sell us oil regularly. I don't want to have to go through the exchange and waste so much money.

>>136951
I'll take some money out of the alliance bank for you. I'll look for providers from the middle east. Some nations excel in oil

>>136952
No need, I'm rolling in cash but I wanted to find a cheaper option. I'm going to build a university now regardless.

Proud to announce that the University of Deponya is now open for business! That's +8 research each turn so I recommend you all get one as well. I'll be saving up for another factory because universities do in fact use up MG every turn.

>>136952
I've noticed that specialization makes it possible to take advantage of mines in South America/Africa, oil wells in Arabia, factories in Asia and research in Europe (I don't know what North Atlantic or Oceania are counted as). If we were a big alliance it would be more efficient to spread ourselves across the world, but with our size we made the right choice.

We ought to come up with a full development plan, not just on an individual basis but for our whole alliance due to our different advantages. For example, maybe a couple of us should focus on research, one or two on MG/weapons, and another on raw materials. At the current price of $2600k for 50 research each university increases your budget by an average of $728k per turn, assuming you sell 50% of your research.
Getting to the ideal position of having several universities and factories each would take prohibitively long and be increasingly expensive.

Militarily I finally reached "Second World War surplus" and I recommend everyone gets there too as it'll help avoid looking weak. Getting enough weapons to reach "Korean War surplus" will take extremely long unless we mass-produce our own weapons or buy them in bulk. Prozadia is still in my sights and I'll attack at the first opportunity.

Update: managed to snag a war with Castile in Central Europe. Maybe I should have used my airforce first because I took 7k casualties and used four weapons. Hopefully I can get some good territory out of this.

Victory in Castile! Unfortunately I didn't grab as much land as I would've wanted as someone managed to capital-march a minute before I did at the beginning of the turn, but good gains regardless. At the same time I got the Nike factory which is a huge boon and pushed my natural GDP above my actual GDP!

Now that I have two factories is it worth getting a small navy? I'm not using my MG for much else and it could be helpful, plus it would make me an actual admiral.

I've pondered this over and it's not feasible for all of us to run a university/research setup because we'll need a lot of weapons and importing all of them is doubtful. The way constructions scale is that universities, factories, and weapons factories become exponentially more expensive when one of them is built. Someone should focus on getting factories and weapon factories. My particular goal is three factories and two universities. Thoughts on this?

>>136960
I'd go ahead and get a small navy to start the process. Having a blue water navy (51 ships) is extremely important for late game wars. Allows you to attack anybody in the world. It's best to start saving up now.
Also, I think that layout is great. I'll focus on getting unis and wep factories

>>136973
>I'll focus on getting unis and wep factories
My point was that each of us should specialize in either unis or weapon factories. Universities take up 1 MG a turn which is 1 factory, while wep factories take 2 MG a turn or 2 factories to run one. That means, unless you want to import really expensive MG, you have to have at least as many factories as unis and twice as many factories as wep factories.

unis, factories and wep factories are all "urban buildings" and building one increases the cost of the next one regardless of type. For example, I have two factories and one university, and to build a new uni/factory/wep factory would cost 350 raw materials, 175 oil and 10 MG.
Let's say you followed through and got 1 uni and 1 wep factory. To not run imports on MG you would need 3 factories, making a total of 5 urban buildings. I don't know how much that would cost but it would be really expensive, all for a mediocre output of both goods. It's best to specialize in one or the other, like my setup for unis or a more expensive one for weapons. Two weapon factories would need 4 factories which makes 6 urban buildings, a bit more expensive than the aforementioned mixture but you have twice the amount of valuable weapons.

>>136975
True. I'll focus on weapon facs then. Are you going to focus on unis?

>>136977
Yes, I'll focus on universities both for the income and for the research. It'll be good for MG production because of the added bonus. For example, if I have 2 research upgrades to manufacturing and three factories, then even if I have two unis I'll still be getting a surplus of 1.6 MG per turn. I don't know what the other two will specialize in.

>>136978
Also there is an added bonus for the alliance of getting +1 research for every university in your alliance. Maybe you and Pones of Sunset could focus on getting unis while me and Sirocco could focus on weapons, or me and Pones. Whichever one works.

>>136979
>Also there is an added bonus for the alliance of getting +1 research for every university in your alliance.
Well, I can see why alliances try to get as big as possible, lol. When a big alliance has 40 universities that's a really big difference.

Nordica in scandinavia is open for war. Only has land and a few mines and oil.

>Nordica in scandinavia is open for war
> Nordica is west nation

You lose a bunch of relationship points

>>136982
The actual minute after I went to sleep…
Thanks for the heads-up, though.

>>136983
Relationship points are temporary. Land and GDP is forever.

>>136985
Your most important relationship is always with the you of the future, and your theoretical future children.
They should grow up in a land with more land and GDP.

Currently only has 2k troops left

Lucky me, got "General of the Army" event. Army, Air Force or "Special Projects" (chemical weapon progress)?

>>136991
Air force would be the most useful

>>136992
Good choice, I now have an air force on par with the most powerful Mercenary players near us (I did the smart move of getting planes from the USA then clicking the button). However, expanding it any more would require either 65 relationship points or a whopping 43MG. I'm not sure how you're expected to get enough in the late game.

I secured a trade deal with Womanhood exchanging research for $2600k. Contact this player and ask for this deal before sending your research.

Livonia has been inactive for 87 hours. I think that means it's mechanically impossible to attack him now, but had I seen this sooner it could have been possible to declare on him without getting in trouble with Invictus.

Checking nations in neighboring regions is annoying but I suppose it's the reason some players managed to get >30,000 square km. That, or some shenanigans with concessions. I still don't quite get the meta.

Got an offer of $8400k for 150 research from Nirvana. I don't have that on me at the moment but if any of you do it's the best rate in the game at the moment. I'm still leery of giving Mercenaries research because they are the most powerful potential threat nearby.

>>136996
Speaking of Nirvana, they sent an invitation to join the Mercenaries.
I'm just here for the funsies, so I'm sticking with everyone here.

>>137005
Same but it might be just be a copypasta to expand their alliance. I don't know their opinion of us but they probably consider us half-decent and are aware we could maybe swing the balance if a regional conflict breaks out. On the flip side, if we were to ever fight against Mercenaries even on behalf of a powerful ally we would be quickly overwhelmed. Probably best to maintain a cordial relationship and politely ignore the invitation.

Also I don't know how alliance power scaling works in the mid- and late-game so I'm worried about us becoming irrelevant. Trade deals may be the key to this and a priority should be finding someone we could buy oil from. It's going to be about ten turns until I can build another factory but I (as will each of us) will need oil for the shortfall. In case you haven't noticed research is big in demand so we could get a favorable rate of oil-to-research in exchange for an exclusive contract of trade, for example with Pirates MMP. If no one else will handle that bit of diplomacy I could do that.

Another thing in regards to our neighbors: I am constantly checking Prozadia's status because I'm afraid of three people declaring war on him before I can. It may (or may not) be possible to have an agreement where Prozadia is the exclusive conquest of /mlpol/ in exchange for something else.

Just succeeded in marching the capital. 2000 land from conquest isn't bad, but the loss of some troops isn't great.

Nordjøen https://oppressive.games/bloc/stats.php?id=15412
Is eastern aligned and can be declaired war on. Has enough weapons to be second world war surplus, 20,000 troops. Poorly trained, and a meger airforce. However he is online, and not away.
1 factory, 2 oil wells, 3 mines.

Overwhelming firepower of
5,000 standard troops vs 75,000 good troops and an airforce leads to no losses.

He has 22,000 troops now.

>>137039
Joint strike! I just declared war.

>>137039
Attack him now, he has 9000 troops! Hurry before two other people declare on him!

>>137044
Just joined. He has 3k troops left atm. As soon as the turn changes one of us has to attack before the other guy marches the capital.

>>137046
Good work. I'll try but keep in mind that he'll try to be first too. Hopefully you can try as well.

Also, keeping ~80k troops at elite training has got to be ridiculously expensive to the point it's holding back your economic development. I've been maintaining my training around level 50 but even that's pricy. Elite training probably is only worth it if a major war is about to break out, and as for being able to afford it that's what the alliance bank is for.

>>137048
I just maintain at a high good. Just increased training to make sure I didn't loose anymore troops after I declaired war this time.
Also I learned how spys work. They loose all infiltration points when sent to another country.
For me right now it's about 1800 to 2000 to train (maybe once every two to three turns). Not too bad all things considered. Plus the maintaince costs to keep a high developed nation to ward off enemy spy actions.
My most limiting factor is land to make sure I keep a good food rate of maybe overkill levels, and to ensure I don't deplete all my oil too fast.

>as for being able to afford it that's what the alliance bank is for.
Ah. Good to know.
My current setup needs more land before I can really grow alot more rapidly. So I think I'm at a soft cap for right now.

I don't really know a whole lot about the game, or any metas. So early game, and mid game and late game advice is always appreciated.

>>137049
I'll go ahead and open up the alliance bank to anyone that needs it instead of having you ask.
Yeah currently you don't have to train it to elite, just enough to keep it standard. We have to have high troops in order to compensate for being a smaller alliance. Currently working on the tech level and might enable weapons trade in the future.
Right now we basically have to use research to our advantage and lessen the amount of land that facs and other things use, or double their production by 10%. Usually when things get this rough is when wars have the potential to start happening between smaller/medium-sized alliances, over basically anything. I'd just continue building up navy, tech, and airforce if you can.

>>137050
>just enough to keep it standard.
Got it.
Can normal factories make ships? Or is it a combination of both or just weapon factories.

>>137052
When there were no weapon factories, it was just normal factories allowing you to make ships. Now it's just a combination of both weapon factories and normal factories.

>>137053
Thanks

Oh the other guy left the war. Someone can join in now if anyone wants to.

>>137055
Can't, they recently lost a war. I don't think anybody new can join.

>>137056
Ah

Pones, at the start of next turn I'll use my planes and navy to whittle his army below 5000. You can then capital march before I do.

>>137058
Sounds good. Thank you.

>>137049
>For me right now it's about 1800 to 2000 to train (maybe once every two to three turns). Not too bad all things considered.
You have to look at it from an opportunity cost perspective, as that much money will easily cover the cost of a new mine or well. Also keeping literacy high and healthcare reasonably high isn't as expensive.

>My most limiting factor is land to make sure I keep a good food rate of maybe overkill levels, and to ensure I don't deplete all my oil too fast.
I'm at a slight deficit for food and the only way to avoid that without fielding a small army is wrecking your economy. Food is cheap and I don't mind importing it. As for oil, it's secondary to mines but I like to build a new well now and then; prospecting is comparatively getting cheaper.

>>137050
>Usually when things get this rough is when wars have the potential to start happening between smaller/medium-sized alliances, over basically anything
I'm more concerned over the love triangle of Pirate MMP/Sovereign League and Invictus, as Sovereign League has a MDP with both super-powers. If they go to war which side will Sovereign League align itself with? I'm not afraid of Invictus regionally but it clearly has more good players and is likely to win a global war, in which case they would come after us.

The medium-sized alliances like Mercenary Corps, Reavers, Chicago Outfit, and ESFe are essentially allied with each other and I don't see them going to war. We could conceivably win a regional war against any of them singularly (based on geography) but not likely two of them combined. Mercenary Corps will always cast a long shadow and we must avoid war with them because they could clap us at any point.

Also remember that you're allowed to declare on members of alliances if they've been 60 hours offline. You have to be quick though because you can't attack after 72 hours.

>>137060
There's only one potential target: in seven hours Fehu will become eligible for attack. I don't know if I'll be online then but you can go ahead without me (make sure it says 60 hours offline before declaring war!)

>>137062
Finished my capital march. I'll keep an eye on the target.

>>137063
Turns out whenever a country peaces out its army bounces back to ~7000. I shouldn't have used both means of bombardment because I'm stuck in the war for another turn. Oh well.

>>137064
Ah, sorry.

So I declared war on Fehu because he's 60 hours offline and to be safe I notified Nirvana. Unfortunately I was (and still am) on a phone call and, with my attention divided, I clicked on "declare war" instead of "send." Besides incredibly embarrassing I'm afraid of being curbstomped so I immediately apologized and sent reparations. I hope I didn't screw everything up…

>>137068
It's okay, but I had to provide 50 research for a white peace. You're free to attack Fehu and I recommend doing so before others get in on the action.

Attacked with 85,000 troops vs his 27,000 elite only lost 1,000 troops and he lost 11,000.
I think I have to recover the reputation to get more weapons for a while.

>>137072
Same. As big an impact as to my research and to my pride is how my international/American reputation has sunk because of a mistaken declaration. After these and Prozadia (whenever he becomes eligible for attack) I'll lay off conquest for a while.

I'll be "double-tapping" Fehu both for practice and because the guy with the Swiss flag wants the first capital march and I want to deny that to him. That's a lot of GDP to take.

We need to coordinate. The Swiss guy is online and although he can't get a capital march himself, he may wait for one of us to get Fehu's numbers down enough so he can get the biggest bounty. Hold off on attacking just yet until we figure out a strategy.

>>137075
Okay. Sounds good.
The guy has planes, and enough troops to survive a land attack

The swiss guy can't capital march unless one of us weakens the army even more. The amount of troops he has isn't enough.
The I can take out 10k troops in one shot, he could maybe take 6-7k troops, I'd guess the capabilities would lie somewhere around that area, but playing it safe would be better.

>>137078
He could take out 2k troops with his navy (I think, unless if it's 1k per ship), and another 2k with his airforce if the mission is successful. That means if we leave the troop numbers as 9000 or less he can likely capital march. Neither of us could capital march this turn solo, but one of us can do so after the other wears down the military. However, this takes some time and if there is any gap between our operations he could snipe the first capital march. Even if we succeed, one of us goes first and the other is last.

What's the best way to do it?

>>137078
Actually, he's offline now (I think he's Indonesian and it's the middle of the night there), so if you want to go for it we can.

>>137080
Okay, I'll use planes and you get the first march? Or should I attempt to get it first?

>>137081
I'll get it first and I'll share some of the loot (raw materials, oil, and whatever else he has saved up over 60 hours of inactivity). Launch a full-scale attack and I'll mop up the remainder.

>>137082
Sounds good

>>137082
Lost a plane 8k remain

>>137084
F

Success!

>>137085
Nice!

>>137085
Thank you. If you need anything I'll see what I can do.

>>137086
Apparently, because I hadn't launched an attack on Nordsjøen for a turn the war ended. Unfortunate but I certainly made the right choice.

>>137087
I'll see if I can get any trade deals going.

Attacking Srpska. No more available room I think. He doesn't have much land but it's still a start. Only one I can attack right now.

>>137090
Yep it's full. I'll help however I can just let me know how.

Keep an eye on Monkeyville in the Mercenary Corps. He's nearing the 60 hour mark. Troops: 48,000. Also some planes.

Thiele is Online, but is completely unaffiliated with a faction or alliance. Has atm 30,000 troops.

Fehu just came online just now.

Looks like in fact Monkeyville will be 60 hours inactive soon. I don't want to fight another war but if you aren't ready I'll declare war.

Pones is the only one online, so here we go again…

>>137095
That's awkward. I'm worried about getting on Mercenary's bad side so maybe you want to send a peace deal. Ditto for Monkeyville if he comes online; I can't attack now anyway until next turn.

Offered peace with Monkeyville, he came online.

Invictus is alliance being runned by guy whose alliance is traitor

But Invitctus leader got attacked by PMM last iteration. So my guess is that invictus is alliance to challange PMM. But tbh I am not sure they could pull it off

>>137159
Invictus has zoomed ahead in terms of member numbers, and if you look at the player leaderboard most of the top players are Invictus. I think they do have the advantage.

I've started contacting people who can sell oil to us. Should I do the same for MG or food?

I can sell food to /mlpol/
I take either oil or lewd pics sent over discord

type your press release here! No worries. It's all fun and games. Your time to shine is surely nearing. The real resource we're all getting is good times with friens.

I got a deal with 4th Reich over oil sales at $65k per Mbbl for our alliance, and I am negotiating something with Zarpistan. I'll keep you posted.

>>137163
4th Reich will sell us 50 Mbbl per turn starting two turns from now. That should be plenty to get our industry up and running.

Robo inc will sell us oil at $62k per Mbbl, so long as we give him a heads-up two turns in advance.

>>137163
>>137165
>>137164
Very nice. Thank you.

>>137166
I purchased 100 units of oil over 5 turns (20 per turn) for $6600k from UN Refugee Camp. Had to withdraw most of that from the bank, but I'll pay it back. This oil will be enough for a new factory.

Got two more potential sellers of oil, fyi. TRFA and Baath. Funnily enough a third person contacted me but his nation's been completely deleted for some reason.

Also looks like I missed the chance to go after Prozadia. Oh well.

>>137167
>>137198
Nice.

There was mass purge of random nations a bunch of people got deleted PMM lost a bunch of memebers

There might be wars if Cumsod doesn't come online to restore nations.
Even one of admins got deleted

Loveable mlpolicemen VaXers. This board has been targeted by a spambots. To address this, we've added a 1x/24 hour captcha. We will be monitoring the situation, and any reports are welcome and appreciated
Fug, wrong thread. That was a smooth brain move

welcome to bloc,
new feature has been added.

4th Reich is looking to buy research, 2600k for 50.
Keep in mind this is the same price suggested by Womanhood from Pirate MMP but I had to go to her. Nirvana also offers good prices so it's a matter of preference.

Also, Easternside2 wants to sell food if you're interested.

Just got my third factory! Let me know if anyone needs assistance in getting built up; I can provide MG and oil.

I asked Noviate if he was indeed buying 50 research at $3000k and he replied "Yes," so I sent him the research. After a while I PMed him to send me the money but I didn't receive or hear anything despite him being online. If I don't get anything within several hours I'm complaining to his alliance officers.