| Tom Willard (Golden Rainbow) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 03:38 pm 
We see an increase in the financial index of most countries.
This is despite expected declines in income and due to much larger declines in cost, resulting in an improved ratio between income and cost. Mainly the defense cost is declining even further, resulting in lower total cost.
This was expected and announced on the forum several times recently and the results are showing in many countries.
You can use the download feature on the country home page and look into the financial indexes of countries now and in the past. There is old data available and the changes are visible. We have not looked into it recently but we know the parameters. The financial index will continue to climb in the coming weeks.
A very special case
We have looked into an empire that is owned by one of the players who is accusing our gamemaster of stealing and deteriorated conditions in his countries.
We have seen that the financial index in most of the countries in his empire was increasing substantially except for two countries where the index was declining.
In these two countries, employment was at less than 25% due to disastrous setting on the education priorities. Long term lack of workers in one group caused corporations to fail and financials to decline.
The same player is encouraging his federation members to destroy new player countries and we have documented a more general effort to damage the game. It seems that this player gave up on his own game and tries to damage naïve followers in his federation.
We are calling upon this player to open up about his own records in the game. Explain how it is possible that he is encouraging others to start a war in view of how he is managing his own risk of war.
And, while claiming that his countries are losing money because of recent changes by the gamemaster, his own game playing shows lack of basic understanding. |
| Martock (Little Upsilon) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:19 pm
Tom, you need to do better yourself. YOU are the public image of W3C, even if that's not your real title. Even if you are the head janitor there, YOU are the one who we communicate with over matters in the game. Belitting players in the public forums is simply unacceptable by a W3C representative. Calling players names isn't helpful. You state that Laguna is a whiner, what does that make you?
For future reference, if you want to belittle and insult players, do so in a private message, not on the public forums. |
| Tom Willard (Golden Rainbow) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:24 pm
Martock.
you are right. |
| Daconia (Kebir Blue) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:25 pm
Tom,
The forum is much more than just a place to inform people. You have the game news for that. The forum is where we can discuss life as well as things going on in the game. Most of the really successful threads have nothing to do with the game at all.
Look, some of the changes you have made have been great, some not so much, but banning the people that disagree with you will result in no one providing you with any feedback and result in a general dissatisfaction that will be hard to overcome.
Just my 2 cents. |
| Tom Willard (Golden Rainbow) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:38 pm
As you know, we have never been afraid of any criticism and the forum is full of that.
the reason we intervene is to prevent the spread of misleading information and to stop people who are clearly aiming at damaging the game.
if you don't agree with us that is fine.
In fact, we are less interested in good news than in bad news.
bad news can trigger a change to the better. Good news is nice to hear but does not trigger any improvement.
There is unfortunately a lot of second guessing on how things work while I just look at the base economic model which is partly my own work.
So when we see complete nonsense published here, we sometimes need to act.
The only reason things are behaving a little different than we might intend or take more time to change, is the game data.
we have written the logic but the game depends on the logic and the current data.
The data is in the details of the countries and in the markets.
At the end, the base model will decide on the direction. |
| Kevin Henry (Little Upsilon) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:39 pm
Tom,
Quote:you don't care, I do.
What gives you the right to make that comment?
How many game questions have you fielded on the forum?
How many new players have you invited to your fed to make them feel like part of the community?
How much time do you spend on chat offering advice or discussing game strategies?
How many messages about monkeys have you sent out to the amusement of others?
How many players have been inspired by your longevity and knowledge?
How many calming peaces and exhilarating wars have you coordinated?
The reason Laguna speaks up is because he cares. |
| Tom Willard (Golden Rainbow) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:48 pm
I explained how this player was explicitly and maliciously trying to damage the game.
shoving these arguments under the carpet does not help.
If you care, you try to prevent the damage, not to ignore it or to make believe it does not exist. |
| Johanas Bilderburg (Little Upsilon) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:52 pm
Well said Tom. A few asshats are trying to ruin the game for everyone.
Yes the game is not perfect.
Yes it is a work in progress.
Is it worth your time to continue playing?
That is the question you must ask yourself.
IMO Yes.
|
| Laguna | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:52 pm
I would really like to know how any of my posts was misleading, for all of them to be deleted.
Can you reason that? |
| Man of Peace (White Giant) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 06:54 pm
Well put Kevin |
| ebby247 (Kebir Blue) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 07:18 pm
personally, i think Laguna is one of the most even handed, voices of reason in the game. for some time i have been concerned that he would leave the game out of frustration and then where would the game be. he is not the only voice of the players, but he is sure one of the most respected. |
| Elaieva (Little Upsilon) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 07:33 pm
I agree that Laguna is a tremendous asset to the game, and I'm more than a little upset that his posts were removed and that his opinions aren't given more weight by W3C. Laguna has his fingers on the pulse of the players, and he is more often than not a calming influence; when he's upset and hostile towards W3C, there's a valid reason behind it. At the same time, I have to say that W3C has been making at least some effort to listen to us; upping the caps on corp cash are a perfect example.
I do wish that W3C would listen to the fact that a lot of us don't care for the changes they are making, but in the end it IS their game. I particularly wish that they would look at the impression they are giving that they don't care about losing veteran players, the very players who teach newbies, who make them feel welcome and part of a community ... but again in the end it IS their game. It has been made clear that they have a vision of how the game is going to be, and the opinions or wants of the current players aren't going to deter them from that vision.
And, as Sam said, all we can do given that inescapable fact is decide whether it's worth our time to continue playing. |
| TuCulo EsMio (Little Upsilon) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 07:53 pm
I would just lock this thread. Been done before:P
Everyone one who has been around for the shortest of times realizes that laguna cares about this game, likely too much. He's helped more players them many of us combined.
Change is always hard.
Tom and laguna, you guys are BOTH essentialy mangement, IMO. You guys should take this behind closed doors, out of the public eye. Your damaging your product. |
| Laguna | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 08:04 pm
You don't close topics that are a rebuttal.
I'm not management by any means. What I say isn't even ignored, it's rejected. I don't do and decide anything.
Objective information is a very important commodity.
And how I speak with Willard in public is the same way I speak with him in private. |
| ikiryo Alexiel (Fearless Blue) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 08:07 pm
In a way. It sort of makes sense. when half the game is gossiping about so and so's ruined empire and blaming it entirely on w3c, it ~makes sense~ to offer some sort of clarification to prefer further erroneous gossip-mongering.
That said, this was not the most diplomatic way to do so given the current atmosphere amongst the veteran players.
I would like to highlight this item, just on account of my own frustration:
Kevin Henry said:
"
How much time do you spend on chat offering advice or discussing game strategies?
"
Why doesn't w3c have a representative in the chatroom helping out players and clarifying things.?
Sadly, on account of my naivete, I spend a couple hours Daily in that chatroom helping n00bs out. telling them how to start up, how not to go into debt
(because most n00bs want to war asap and they dont realize how expensive it is and how many RL months they will have to wait before they can afford enough to take out a c3 WITHOUT buying cash from cash market. anyways, i digress).
I spend these hours of my own time, for free, as a cheap, pimped out PR person who, half the time, is verbally abused by the really immature noobs - and can't do anything about it. there are no moderators.
In the tnn irc channel, run by Genie Alpha, we have channel ops to maintain a positive, constructive atmosphere.
In simchat...none. and not one w3c individual is willing to do the positive PR they ought to be doing to make sure that the right thing is said to the dozen n00bs that come in and ask "so do I have to pay?"
I personally don't get paid enough (lmao) to tell that poor bastard "yes, you have to pay otherwise your country goes boom in 2 weeks" and subsequently get yelled at and verbally attacked for my honesty.
ok. that's the end of iki's rant. apologies.
*pets laguna* mrowr~
sincerely,
iki-ryo (Alexiel) |
| Tom Willard (Golden Rainbow) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 08:16 pm
We know that changes are sometimes hard to accept.
These changes are done very carefully not to harm anyone and make sure that everyone who is playing reasonably, will have a fair chance of keeping her/his country profitable.
It seems that most complaints come from very experienced players who worry about the profitability of very large enterprises and empires.
I don't see how it is essential that an enterprise that was meant to have 750 corporations and succeeded over time to get to double that number, must have a trillion in profit 6 times a day.
I don't see that this makes it possible for any new player to ever being able to compete for a place at the top.
We do think that profitability should remain very good.
It may now seem that we did aim at these players but this is not the case.
None of the measures we have taken are aimed at such players. It is their assumption that we are after their assets but when everything is scaling down, their numbers scale down harder but percentages are similar.
The only thing that happened in that direction, (as a result of the way trading is conducted by C3 countries), is that very high level corporations, with huge salaries and very high quality are less profitable. The difference is very small if they adjust quality levels.
On the other hand, corporations at lower levels are a little more profitable than before.
This side effect is not planned like this but it is very welcome. It helps new players who either did not have the time or do not know yet how to optimize their corporations. |
| Petra Arkanian (Little Upsilon) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 08:27 pm
I nominate myself as chat moderator.
I would be stern, but fair, and liberal with the paddle.
Although, Jonni made it seem like he would be in there frequently a while back. I actually haven't seen Mr. Gil in quite a long time... And Tom, it really was QUITE nice that afternoon when you were in the chat with us.
But seriously, the chat does need a moderator/noob helper. |
| ikiryo Alexiel (Fearless Blue) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 08:49 pm
wild: not just one, but several so that there are people to help at various times in the day. Uk timezone, NA timezone, etc.
a couple the mods from tnn irc server visit simchat often (laguna and myself), wild is very capable, so is ela, so are several others. all various times of the 24 hour day.
this is just something to consider for possibility in the future.
As for n00bs being competitive: that is what cash market is for, right? problem is, those big players use it too. so lets pretend that doesn't exist for a second and what we are left with are n00bs who can't make enough money to be competitive while big players profit goes up up up, widening the gap. i don't really have a solution for it. but the only way would be to just make everything cheap and profitable for n00bs (and not trying to undermine the profitabilty of big players, some of whom invested a lot into the game only to have their stuff robbed via taxes and corp nerfing etc etc)
half-assed bandaid idea: instead of less ammo usage all around, (corp production increase fine, but with ammo usage decrease,...gonna be surplus on market for decades and all those people with weapons corps gonna go into debt)
... why not give n00bs military boost as well (cheaper weapons, cheaper costs, less ammo use). probably a really complicated thing to do (forgive my lack of knowledge about the economics side of the game) but to do positive things to one end and refrain from negative changes on the other end is just a simple idea to prevent mass w3c protest.
I'm not an economics person, i'm more on the pr/diplomatic/political end of things, so I can only offer suggestions that reflect maintaining positive atmosphere and pissing as few people off as possible.
ok done rambling. i know i went off on a few endless tangents and never finished completing them. again, apologies
sincerely,
iki |
| Jack Frost (Little Upsilon) | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 09:37 pm
Tom,
I must reiterate what everyone has said and let you know that Laguna is a very good person to have around. He helps the most people out and he tries very hard to keep worlds peaceful without much action. I think its safe to say that without Laguna a lot of players would be years behind where they are now. Laguna is to Simcountry whats Crude Oil is to Royal Dutch Shell.
In Regards To Chat,
I spend countless hours in chat helping the new players that ask for it and are respectful. When they come in and get out of hand though there is nothing that any of us can do, other then to just ignore them and hope that they go away.
In response I humbly request that you make a few responsible players moderators of chat so that we may keep it a new player friendly environment.
In Regards Of The Changes W3C Has Made,
While the majority of the changes that you have made are for the betterment of the game, the changes have benefited W3C more than the players. Their is a very fine balance that you need to maintain in order to make the game fun for everyone and to keep your player base, which is by far your best recruiting tool.
With Regards,
Dragoon |
| Laguna | Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 11:23 pm
/me hugs everyone
I love you people. ^_^ |
| jason (Little Upsilon) | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 12:40 am
A few ass hats are always trying to ruin the game for everyone. change is good and for the most part I like it all. Change or stop playing |
| AFChairman David Walker (Golden Rainbow) | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 01:10 am
I think there is a problem, especially, when such a major change is introduced to Simcountry that it is not properly consulted beforehand.
If W3 want to play real-time then it is only to be expected that some poeple will get powerful overtime and stash cash and military.
My problem is that we have to make many adjustments, and therefore time, to work around many of the fixes to untested W3 installations.
I've always advocated no intereference in markets etc. If we want it, we have to buy it or make it. Yet, we get the Quality and the wierd market affects.
I agree with limits in preventing big empires attacking small ones but I joined over 6 years ago, and the game is almost ubrecognisable to back then.
Many features have been added in the last 6 years, untested, abandoned and not useful. Time reduction to playing is a key factor for those building an empire but has been ignored constantly. Only slight improvements have been made but only for all not for empires.
Also, many people that play this game are ill, hence the time they can devote, but also people have natural absences, yet we can be attacked continuously in absence. This to me, in the longrun, is unfair, and the GM pointed me to War Protection.
I will post the message if you like which was about 2 weeks ago and (I replied within the hour but no reply yet) but this is the most blatant attempt at costing more to game players without annoucements.
I will pay the game price but not more to protect me against my absence. I would probably pay double but not more to protect when I'm ill, and as I'm ill for life, it's a real issue. |
| AFChairman David Walker (Golden Rainbow) | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 02:04 am
Information regarding all transactions from all country buying, selling, employee tax, health and education contribution and population useage payments, are needed for essential playing at top levels.
The game has been changed much in my over 6 years of play, and when a vet is at the top we must have other avenues of exploration if we're to be restricted elsewhere in the game.
Wealth can be kept in GCs or countries but why make this an actual transaction? GCs could be a reserve bank behind an empire, unable to be touched. Yet, we have a complicated, commission charging Cash Market!
The Download sheets give very little information apart from cycular events. We don't don't know what a country pays for a product or sells it for to anyone. Running a an empire with so little information is a serious problem at the top. |
| nix001 (Fearless Blue) | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 02:24 am
In respose to AFC's first post about war protection.
Helloa Tom. Maybe you lot could give us 2 RL months a RL year free war protection taken when ever we need it?
Also maybe you could set up a pay to use mobile phone messaging service to let us know when someone delcares war on us?
Trust. I witnessed someone get robbed in my hood last week 
The dood that got robbed had been there before I turned up time ago.
I felt gutted for the guy.
Anyways.....It's good to see you sparring and I hope to see more of it 
Nix001
MNA |
| Grayson301 | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 02:57 am
As a Near Noob (compared to other more experienced player), Many will disagree with me.
Quoting Jack Frost
"... Their is a very fine balance that you need to maintain in order to make the game fun for everyone ..."
The changes I have Noticed by Far and the most important to me is that the Playing Field is being leveled some.
This Translates out to me that IF and When a Veteren player decides to Declare on me I MIGHT stand a better chance of lasting longer in a fight because of the Changes W3c is and has made to the War sections of the Game.
I came in to this Game just before the Profits were Changing and just before the Old War engine went away and I can tell you I wouldn't have stood a small chance in a fight.
Now i'm not making a killer profit and would like to see more Cash in my CEO and Empire but that maybe just the Greed in my nature coming out.
I'm currently Growing and my countries are bringing in small profits. I have noticed that the overall Market Vlue of some of my Corps in my CEO are cut in half .. but they are still making a small profit..
So for my 2 cents worth ... TOM keep leveling that playing Field till us Noobs Can enjoy the Game to |
| Beast (Golden Rainbow) | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 04:30 am
Grayson, out of curiosity, what changes make you more likely to survive? |
| ShcyzMattiCa (Little Upsilon) | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 04:15 pm
"Grayson, out of curiosity, what changes make you more likely to survive?"
He joined SNA. Lucky guy. |
| Grayson301 | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 07:41 pm
WEll primarily the number of the mad attacking NFP at one time.
The changes to the made to make all the weapons Work work more efectively.
Beast, I know that before one could attack with unlimited naval power and that power primarily was in the Nfp. by limiting the size of the Fleets ,True one player Can JUST send more Fleets,But by limiting the size of the Fleet it has increased the survivablity some what to a slightly higher level.
and thats About the only changes the GM has made that I'm thinking I like.
Over The RL last Day my CEO has had to inject over 1T into 125 corps ,
and the Total over all value of most corps is Half what they were only a month ago.
So don't get me wrong I'm not a total happy lug , I'm just a lug.
And
Wendy as most people my tenure with SNA is as always dependant on the uppers, they could kick me out at anytime. |
| ShcyzMattiCa (Little Upsilon) | Monday, March 9, 2009 - 08:38 pm
Don't get kicked out, please I am begging you. |
