SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread VI

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Everyone makes fun of chest beating. Your response... beat your chest harder!

This is hilarious, and you totally misunderstood my points in the context of 20th century warfare, and I really shouldn't get dragged into it any more.

You are the one who decided to put the serious into what was a joking matter. Who's blaming who? Honestly, I know i grate you in many ways in which I do take pride in it, but I will do so anyway. Throw in the fact that I have been saying repeatedly I have no intention of building that damn thing but yet you get on your high pedestal regardless. You certainly like to act all pompous huh?

[Simon_Jester]

This is just hilarious. You think I talk about my preferences for how I like my SF to look as a serious thing? Or that I actually care whether your biggest warstomper is 50 points, or 150, or 250?

I've often been so misunderstood, but I can't recall the last time it amused me to be misunderstood so.

[Shroom Man 777]

You guys should translate this to, like, Umeria issuing condemnations for Byzantine whatevers of Tau or for Byzantine abandonment of the SHITS, or the Byzantines issuing a fatwa on science or burning effigies dressed in lab coats or something.

[Simon_Jester]

When I'm not so damn busy.

[White Haven]

Begun, this K-Zone brawl has.

[Shroom Man 777]

Oh man. I guess this is Shady's revengeance for how Nova Genoa went SUDDENLY SOLARIANS.

[White Haven]

Suddenly, Shroomy, I think it'll be easier to justify the Bragfleet wandering slowly home.

[DarthShady]

Nothing like a good K-Zone brawl!

Yes, my revengeance!

[Shroom Man 777]

And now, I'm done with Xena. Note that the Eoghans and Nova-Atlanteans will be at Sol harassing the Earthfleet (though the EUC/NA force doesn't have enough strength to take it over themselves). The OMINOUS will proceed to Sol immediately after Xena has been neutralized.

Guys, feel free to add your nations' navies' POV in the Xena war or other stuff as you please. I deliberately didn't make my post too specific or detailed. Also, because I was lazy and wanted a "shortcut". Hence the bad song and bad poetry.

[Simon_Jester]

Ha. Xena warrior warships.

Good stuff, mang.

[Dark Hellion]

Just so everyone knows I will be putting up some Mehstomp stuff sometime. I have just been too busy with research to do much else mentally taxing.

[Agent Sorchus]

The Delaying action is in place. But since it is simply a delaying action it can't really have more action. I also broke the images since they were pretty massive and I know some people dislike that.

[Shroom Man 777]

You could resize them on photobucket. I do that a lot with those hueg ones.

[Agent Sorchus]

Too lazy. I've also got a post for the RPG thread below in the works. And yes I know resizing is fast.

[White Haven]

I, White Haven, do hereby declare Robot Bar Fight to be the Official Anthem of the Emissaries of Xylyx. So it is written, so it is hilarious, so it shall be. *solemn nod*

[Shroom Man 777]

Obligatory saber rattling.

[Simon_Jester]

Oooh. I wanna see how Siege handles this.

[Simon_Jester]

[Review's Pollux's military expansion figures.]

Well, looky here.

[puts on modhat, cracks knuckles]

More in a moment.

[RogueIce]

Okay, turns out I have (limited) Internet access so I'll post this quickie of an update.

I'm pretty much out for the entire month. As alluded to above, I'll have very limited access. So I can't really follow the story thread, though I'll try to keep up with OOC when I can check in. You can also send me PMs, of course, but I make no promises on timely replies.

Keep it classy, SDNWorlders.

[Shroom Man 777]

Sidney, I love you!

*Byzon lowers Hank into a vat of vegemite*

I know!

[Simon_Jester]

This recent post of mine in Story is a response to Pollux's recent 3400 military expansion post. In short, the warnings given by the Pfhor's High Ministers of Commerce and the Exchequer came true.


To put it simply, Pollux, you're really not supposed to go over 10% of GDP for new military construction without a logical, compelling reason. Since you were effectively absent for practically all of 3400, and weren't provoked in any way that would give you an obvious reason for war emergency spending, and didn't consult the mods on the subject.

There's nothing inherently wrong with retroactively posting your military expansion after a year of inactivity (in game or out of game). I don't mind that. I do mind the 12.5% thing, especially when nations that were actively engaged in combat during the same period had a smaller military expansion budget. And especially when you didn't do anything during that period to explain why your nation would be at an unusual level of mobilization.

Therefore, I'm penalizing you a substantial fraction of the overspending, and hitting you with a modest GDP decrease for next year. This is something of a warning shot, since your overspending was not utterly ridiculous this time, and it is a first offense.

If you want to spend over 10% of your GDP on military expansion*, please take it up with the mods, and present logical in-story reasons for your nation's frenzied construction program.

*(note that this money is in addition to any money being spent to maintain your existing armed forces, since you don't have to pay for that)

[Agent Sorchus]

This recent post of mine in Story is a response to Pollux's recent 3400 military expansion post. In short, the warnings given by the Pfhor's High Ministers of Commerce and the Exchequer came true.


To put it simply, Pollux, you're really not supposed to go over 10% of GDP for new military construction without a logical, compelling reason. Since you were effectively absent for practically all of 3400, and weren't provoked in any way that would give you an obvious reason for war emergency spending, and didn't consult the mods on the subject.

There's nothing inherently wrong with retroactively posting your military expansion after a year of inactivity (in game or out of game). I don't mind that. I do mind the 12.5% thing, especially when nations that were actively engaged in combat during the same period had a smaller military expansion budget. And especially when you didn't do anything during that period to explain why your nation would be at an unusual level of mobilization.

Therefore, I'm penalizing you a substantial fraction of the overspending, and hitting you with a modest GDP decrease for next year. This is something of a warning shot, since your overspending was

If you want to spend over 10% of your GDP on military expansion*, please take it up with the mods, and present logical in-story reasons for your nation's frenzied construction program.

*(note that this money is in addition to any money being spent to maintain your existing armed forces, since you don't have to pay for that)

Simon I'm calling Bullshit, especially on the bolded. The Pfor are in the fucking K-zone and all sorts of crazy shit goes down. Not only that they are being used as a boggy-man by many of the locals. Polux didn't need to post anything because all his neighbors did it for him. Just because you go off and shoot a couple of pirates in a long winded story that slows the entire game down doesn't mean that the Pfor's local conditions don't compel them to start a small build up. Go ahead and bump his construction down, if you must, but you are being a dick about the future penalty; it's almost like you don't want him to play.

Also the 10% rule has always been very vague. If you want to start making it a harder rule then start by warning people not slapping down massive penalties immediately and doling out penalties that have never been a part of the rules at all.

[KlavoHunter]

Well, *I* find myself amused by Pfhor OPPRESSING and battleships EXPLODING.


Certainly if Pollux is serious about playing, he'll be able to roll with the punches.

[Shroom Man 777]

I agree with Sorchus. It would be like, in the previous case with Sorchus' gunboats and how they traveled far and wide with tanker assistance, if you (Simon) just arbitrarily posted IC that half his gunboats exploded or something. Sorchus would've thrown a paperweight through your monitor if that happened. Instead, you brought it up OOC and both of you sussed it out.

Maybe mod action IC should be done only if, after bringing it up OOC, both parties can't come into an agreement and someone pulls a CN.

[Simon_Jester]

Shroomy has a point, and if Pollux is willing to address this issue OOC, I'll be happy to retcon that post into Never Happened Land. Although I hope it's at least entertaining enough to leave up.

(This is, by the way, a general policy of Simon-With-Modhat. I will negotiate a mod action that is perceived as unreasonable if someone can come up with a better idea for how to deal with a situation I consider unacceptable).

However, Shroomy, I disagree about how this is like the case of Sorchus' gunboats. In that case, the point of disagreement was more about the spirit of the nature of gunship mobility than anything else. And after actually sitting down and thinking about it I figure it's totally fine, as long as moving gunboats over intersector distances is a lot of work. If gunboats are less strategically mobile than starships, the problem is basically resolved.
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Re: Sorchus:

You think this is a massive penalty? On the scale of the Pfhor Empire it's a mild inconvenience- a 1.5% drop in GDP for one year, whose military impact is basically that they build one less cruiser next year. Meanwhile, the net increase in point value for the Pfhor military in 3400 winds up being a mere 11.3% instead of 12.5%.

And no, I'm not the reference point for the 10% construction standard, either.

The Bragulans are just as warlike, militocratic, and brutal as the Pfhor- but they stuck to 10% of the budget. The Solarians are a de facto post-scarcity society caught right in between the Pfhor and the Bragulans, and so did they. Fingolfin and the Byzantines didn't stick to it, quite, but when you strip out the money spent on things that don't affect point value, he's still within 10%.

However, if the general reaction of this (i.e., as represented by more than three people) is against the GDP penalty for 3401, I'll reconsider that. It's not actually very directly consequential to the game since all it really costs him is 100 points of military construction capability next year, and to me it felt as though it were in keeping with the overall logic of the event, that industrial dislocations could occur and that this would impact the war economy.