An interview with AquaSeaFoam

[flutterby]

Problem is I've seen his picture. I see him as a hippy in a suit. :P

[Sheister]

and then he whips the suit off with the aid of of cleverly hidden velcro strips and struts around the pole.............

[Sephi]

An interesting interview(and from a fellow material scientist, yay :P) to read. Even tho there are some points on which I disagree... Historical wise that is.

but first: Kuhan, sorry but with sustained science, you get something nice. However if you want to come out on top EoA you need more than sustained. I'm sure that versus the bottom kds you'll be fine but mid/top range you'll have a hard time. Being able to exploit the combination of bonusses makes science a too strong factor.

Now to ASF, you, or others, might disregard me, seeing as that I'm playing in warcry and we have a name regrettably. Call it funny or not, but Abs did do their share of Xlogging in the early ages, at least till ~ age 30 orso. When I still cared.

I do still remember the early ages in Midevil Mafia Q where we did get gangbanged by Abs as well as other kds. In the past 10-15 ages I can't say anything about it, since I stopped caring about the big picture of Utopia politics, however for the ages that I was active I've seen Abs commit their fair share of cheating. So your alliance has not always been the alliance who was trying to enforce/promote 1 vs 1 fights or honourable play. Massive bottomfeeding and gangbangs included. Regardless of your Point of view ASF, fellow alliancemembers have acted on different levels. It's been often that Abs leadership turned us away saying: we don't meddle in abs kd affairs.. what they do is their responsibility and we only act if they ask us (implying at that time as much as: if they cheat, we dont wanna know, we got nothing to do with it, nor do we care too much)

At the end of the story, it was still a good interview with a lot of good and healthy thougts and opinions. If abs truly stands for that nowadays it would be good.

[Fates Warning]

I totally lol at the fair play parts. ABS was probably 1 of the very 1st major breaker of the old game rules against account trading/collecting and control of kingdom accounts along with forced use of 3rd party software. Not to mention forced killings of players that randomed into their kingdom that did not meet activity requirements. All of which were against the rules. May be legal now but back then it sure wasn't.

[goodz]

I totally lol at the fair play parts. ABS was probably 1 of the very 1st major breaker of the old game rules against account trading/collecting and control of kingdom accounts along with forced use of 3rd party software. Not to mention forced killings of players that randomed into their kingdom that did not meet activity requirements. All of which were against the rules. May be legal now but back then it sure wasn't.

one of the first? By time absalom existed this was all very common practice.

[crease]

I totally lol at the fair play parts. ABS was probably 1 of the very 1st major breaker of the old game rules against account trading/collecting and control of kingdom accounts along with forced use of 3rd party software. Not to mention forced killings of players that randomed into their kingdom that did not meet activity requirements. All of which were against the rules. May be legal now but back then it sure wasn't.

lol abs killed me off one age i randomed into one of their ghettoes even when i met all requirements to join. no questions were asked.

#over-it

[lastunicorn]

I love how Realest and Godly interviews are now completely buried, but ASF gets back in the spotlight over and over again.

[Malogar]

Nice interview

[Raine13]

wow this post brings back memories!

i was in and around ABS round 4-10 and a few others. haven't played in 8 years, but still remember nearly all the names dropped in the interview. good times.

thanks for posting

[KuhaN]

but first: Kuhan, sorry but with sustained science, you get something nice. However if you want to come out on top EoA you need more than sustained. I'm sure that versus the bottom kds you'll be fine but mid/top range you'll have a hard time. Being able to exploit the combination of bonusses makes science a too strong factor.

I don't think you got my point. Most kingdoms don't have any desire to come out top EOA.

Your argument only stands for kds playing for #1, which is about 5 kds in the entire server. Mid kingdoms don't need to run anything above sustained all round, especially with the addition of sci bonuses at eow. All you're doing is burning money when you can instead be trying to get wars faster, which is the reason why most kingdoms play this game. Not saying i agree with it, but it is what it is.

[TheRock]

I don't think you got my point. Most kingdoms don't have any desire to come out top EOA.

Your argument only stands for kds playing for #1, which is about 5 kds in the entire server. Mid kingdoms don't need to run anything above sustained all round, especially with the addition of sci bonuses at eow. All you're doing is burning money when you can instead be trying to get wars faster, which is the reason why most kingdoms play this game. Not saying i agree with it, but it is what it is.

Protip: good sciences matter for all kingdoms, not just ones that want to grow.

Sciences make provinces stronger and more resilient, and sciences bought earlier in the age are more valuable than those bought later in the age. If you're never planning on any real growth, which most kingdoms aren't, you're much better served, over the course of an age, buying all your sciences as early as possible. The sooner you have those advantages, the more you get to use them, and all else equal, the kingdom with higher science has an advantage.

This is especially true when considering the new war win bonuses, which give you a huge boost in sciences. If you can take that advantage into a war with even preparations otherwise, you're much more likely to win than just going straight after a kingdom. Fighting when you have 20-50% more WPA and TPA, 5-10% more gains, with better econs? Too easy. The only downside in all this is that farming ghettos is now much more lucrative, which makes doing that over sci pumping a viable option

[KuhaN]

Protip: good sciences matter for all kingdoms, not just ones that want to grow.

Sciences make provinces stronger and more resilient, and sciences bought earlier in the age are more valuable than those bought later in the age. If you're never planning on any real growth, which most kingdoms aren't, you're much better served, over the course of an age, buying all your sciences as early as possible. The sooner you have those advantages, the more you get to use them, and all else equal, the kingdom with higher science has an advantage.

This is especially true when considering the new war win bonuses, which give you a huge boost in sciences. If you can take that advantage into a war with even preparations otherwise, you're much more likely to win than just going straight after a kingdom. Fighting when you have 20-50% more WPA and TPA, 5-10% more gains, with better econs? Too easy. The only downside in all this is that farming ghettos is now much more lucrative, which makes doing that over sci pumping a viable option

If a kingdom has 20-50% more WPA and TPA, 5-10% more gains, and with much better econs, I don't think it's because they pumped sciences at SoA. They're either small as hell, or big as hell late age, or have won much more wars than others.

All mid sized kingdoms with 25 players in them have about the same amount of science on average (fluctuating by kd WWs). I disagree that you could get such advantages early on by pumping sciences, maybe looking at 5-10% more WPA or TPA, 2-4% more gains, and slightly better econs. Overrated imo. Not worth the extra monies. And by mid age like you said it levels out (ignoring WWs).

[Shinjiteruu]

Goodjob

[Syntico]

Good read, respect the man for what he has done, but this book (interview?) belongs on the fiction section of the library.

[StratOcastle]

It would be good reading for a number of small kingdom monarchs. I read everything with a filter, but have nothing but praise for the quality interview. My endeavors have never been leadership, though I've crossed my fingers to no avail on behalf of my superiors in several kingdoms.
I'm blue-collar, and for me reading or listening to balanced intellect is stimulating. Detractors noted, I'm no Kool-Aid drinker. ;-) We all share a joy of playing this game.