-Rome-
16-04-2006, 23:18
Under The Influence
Source: http://siroccothemod.blogspot.com/atom.xml
First impressions of Influence seem to be pretty approving, though everyone was bewildered by the Influence rankings and it's been amusing to see how much they've got wrong about which way round they go. The sheer number of people comparing their ranking with others and boasting about it brings many analogies to mind. But they were wrong, because they were forgetting that your influence ranking only shows how powerful you are compared to others in your region. The regional power labels show how much power your region has compared to all the other regions in the world. I've started a thread to discuss Regional Influence Rankings here. But the most amusing thing of all I think was the consternation in the delgates of the feeder regions who believed that the End Had Come. The delegate of the Pacific (Blackadder Goes Forth) in particular went insane with nation-ejecting, believing that the peasants were coming for his head. I heard of paranoid meetings between the feeder delegates all saying "What are we going to do?!" I couldn't help but get a mental image of a clique of old and worried dictators all standing in a circle and wringing their hats. What was ironic about this was that given their circumstances they're probably the most powerful players in the whole game! I guess it only goes to show that those with power really do cling on to it more. For all those who really do think the new system has sucked all the fun out of the invasion game, remember that there are still the six Warzone regions which follow the old rules. Warzone Sandbox is one of them.
So far, here is a list of Regional Power Rankings that I have put together:
Extremely High Very High High Moderate Low Backwater
NationStates v1.9: Regional Influence
Source: http://siroccothemod.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Ladies and gentlemen, Influence is in the building. After a long, long wait we have grabbed our greatest grievances by the short and curlies and destroyed them utterly with one deft stroke. Region griefing, at least as we've known it previously, is no more. The strangely abstract concept of natives is finito. Ejecting to refound is no longer a crime but a remarkable achievement. And all because of that lovely nine-letter word... Influence. With a capital I. But what is it? Well, just see our explanatory page and you should get the lowdown, but what does it mean in the broad sense? Well, now we have region crashing properly coded into the game which means no worrying about rules apart from the rather obvious one of only having one UN nation. When NS was first written by Max Barry he'd never that people would gang up together and steal regions from others. He liked it, but obviously we had to make it fair or people would get discouraged from playing because of, for want of a better word, arseholes. So we ended up with a lot of complicated, precise and, sad to say it, makeshift rules to make things fair to all the players. It never really worked terribly well so something had to be done. And now it is. We now have Regional Influence, a co-operative creation between mods, admins, and players. This has actually got roots going as far as a year back and I'm thrilled that it's all finished now. It was exciting to be a part of, even if my contribution was rather small. Your influence dictates just how powerful your nation is, and thus how easily it can be kicked from a region, or how many nations it can kick should it be delegate. Your influence grows depending on how long you've been in a region and on how many UN endorsements you have. Non-UN nations only have influence based on how long they've been in a region. It costs the UN delegate some of his/her influence to take particular actions like passwording the region or changing the world factbook entry. So, the more powerful your nation is, the more sway you have within a region. The bit that I was involved in was the user interface - how should we tell nations what their influence level is? I helped create that, along with the regional power labels (which show how powerful a region is compared to the others. Your influence label shows how much power you have in your region. So you may have the same label as someone in another region, but you might actually have less power (or more) than them. You'd have to look at the other nations in your region to compare yourself accurately. The practical implications of this new system are I feel, to be explored by you, and not me. So go! Explore! Experiment! Have fun, and enjoy NationStates v1.9 - it's been a while coming.
So far, this is the ranking list that I have put together:
Ambassador Auxiliary Contender Dealmaker Diplomat Dominator Duckspeaker Eminence grise Enforcer Envoy Handshaker Hegemony Hermit Instigator Minnow Negotiator Power Powerbroker Superpower Truckler Vassal
Source: http://siroccothemod.blogspot.com/atom.xml
First impressions of Influence seem to be pretty approving, though everyone was bewildered by the Influence rankings and it's been amusing to see how much they've got wrong about which way round they go. The sheer number of people comparing their ranking with others and boasting about it brings many analogies to mind. But they were wrong, because they were forgetting that your influence ranking only shows how powerful you are compared to others in your region. The regional power labels show how much power your region has compared to all the other regions in the world. I've started a thread to discuss Regional Influence Rankings here. But the most amusing thing of all I think was the consternation in the delgates of the feeder regions who believed that the End Had Come. The delegate of the Pacific (Blackadder Goes Forth) in particular went insane with nation-ejecting, believing that the peasants were coming for his head. I heard of paranoid meetings between the feeder delegates all saying "What are we going to do?!" I couldn't help but get a mental image of a clique of old and worried dictators all standing in a circle and wringing their hats. What was ironic about this was that given their circumstances they're probably the most powerful players in the whole game! I guess it only goes to show that those with power really do cling on to it more. For all those who really do think the new system has sucked all the fun out of the invasion game, remember that there are still the six Warzone regions which follow the old rules. Warzone Sandbox is one of them.
So far, here is a list of Regional Power Rankings that I have put together:
Extremely High Very High High Moderate Low Backwater
NationStates v1.9: Regional Influence
Source: http://siroccothemod.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Ladies and gentlemen, Influence is in the building. After a long, long wait we have grabbed our greatest grievances by the short and curlies and destroyed them utterly with one deft stroke. Region griefing, at least as we've known it previously, is no more. The strangely abstract concept of natives is finito. Ejecting to refound is no longer a crime but a remarkable achievement. And all because of that lovely nine-letter word... Influence. With a capital I. But what is it? Well, just see our explanatory page and you should get the lowdown, but what does it mean in the broad sense? Well, now we have region crashing properly coded into the game which means no worrying about rules apart from the rather obvious one of only having one UN nation. When NS was first written by Max Barry he'd never that people would gang up together and steal regions from others. He liked it, but obviously we had to make it fair or people would get discouraged from playing because of, for want of a better word, arseholes. So we ended up with a lot of complicated, precise and, sad to say it, makeshift rules to make things fair to all the players. It never really worked terribly well so something had to be done. And now it is. We now have Regional Influence, a co-operative creation between mods, admins, and players. This has actually got roots going as far as a year back and I'm thrilled that it's all finished now. It was exciting to be a part of, even if my contribution was rather small. Your influence dictates just how powerful your nation is, and thus how easily it can be kicked from a region, or how many nations it can kick should it be delegate. Your influence grows depending on how long you've been in a region and on how many UN endorsements you have. Non-UN nations only have influence based on how long they've been in a region. It costs the UN delegate some of his/her influence to take particular actions like passwording the region or changing the world factbook entry. So, the more powerful your nation is, the more sway you have within a region. The bit that I was involved in was the user interface - how should we tell nations what their influence level is? I helped create that, along with the regional power labels (which show how powerful a region is compared to the others. Your influence label shows how much power you have in your region. So you may have the same label as someone in another region, but you might actually have less power (or more) than them. You'd have to look at the other nations in your region to compare yourself accurately. The practical implications of this new system are I feel, to be explored by you, and not me. So go! Explore! Experiment! Have fun, and enjoy NationStates v1.9 - it's been a while coming.
So far, this is the ranking list that I have put together:
Ambassador Auxiliary Contender Dealmaker Diplomat Dominator Duckspeaker Eminence grise Enforcer Envoy Handshaker Hegemony Hermit Instigator Minnow Negotiator Power Powerbroker Superpower Truckler Vassal