The Virtual Kingdom ~ Age 73 ~ Aquarium

[StratOcastle]

Hello, and welcome to The Virtual Kingdom for age 73.

~ Aquarium ~

ASSAULT
Dwarf - heretic: blobfish
Faery - sage: manta ray
Undead - paladin: giant trevally
Undead - sage: blue ringed octopus
Undead - war hero: dory

SPEARHEAD
Avian - warrior: amberjack
Bocan - rogue: starfish
Dark Elf - mystic: viperfish*
Dryad - tactician: goliath grouper
Human - warrior: sailfish*

HQ
Avian - tactician: barracuda*
Bocan - rogue: fangtooth
Dark Elf - mystic: maori wrasse*
Dwarf - heretic: stargazer
Faery - paladin: narcomedusae

SPEARHEAD
Bocan - rogue: coffinfish
Dark Elf - mystic: pacific blackdragon
Dryad - tactician: tarpon*
Human - sage: nautilus*
Orc - war hero: goblin shark

ASSAULT
Avian - cleric: hammerhead shark
Dwarf - heretic: gulper eel
Faery - paladin: vampire squid*
Human - cleric: sea urchin
Orc - cleric: blue marlin

Been busy at work. Comments welcome.

Thank you and have a nice day.

[StratOcastle]

There's been effort on the devs part to discourage micro-kingdoms. I believe this is based in the manner in which notorious micros played more than a threat to antisocial kingdom strats.

After spending time alone in a kingdom shell, last age in a functional micro and part of this age in a dysfunctional micro, I can attest to the potential effectiveness of the 5 division system employed here. What is dysfunctional you might ask? It's what happens when you invite unfamiliar players into a tight nit group. However, my experiments in these micro kingdoms weren't intended as a recruitment base they were simply employed to study the teamwork capacity.

The actual concept of the divisional system is based in a 5 lower tier kingdom distillation. Consider this: most kingdoms in the lower tier are comprised of casual and serious players. The concept is for each kingdom to move its 5 best players to one 25 player contender. "Best" is relative to active team players who like their home kingdom but want a taste of the competitive server.

We can't build super kingdoms from old players who already reside in the top tier. They might even see it wise to disrupt this system. What we can do is gravitate players of known origin to create a contender with no relation to current whoring icons. It's not that I don't respect the whoring entities, it's that they have loyalties that are alien to the roots of the lower tier.

The relationship is essential to origin kingdoms to create a defacto alliance. We also want to enjoy the benefit of interchangeability for players who weary of competitive play. Sadly, we must consider measures to screen players deemed questionable in loyalty because completive play can be a dirty business.

To grasp what's going on in this division concept is to understand why the game is littered with apathetic drones who are simply addicted to play. We want to offer the virtue of action to these players by invoking 5 independently functioning limbs. It goes without saying, but I'm saying it, the players should have a feel for how the game is played. That is that I might stink at math but I know when my enemy is desperate, I know when to suppress net worth zones, when to chain and when to throw in the towel. I get micro, and this is the aim of this system in design.

Besides design the basis of the collaboration between every race and every personality in The Virtual Kingdom is based in pageantry and culture. We double down on culture because deep culture is the single most powerful human concept. Culture surpasses empires and shuns capital in the interest of endurance. In the real world counter cultures attempt to infiltrate through the lure of gain, be it money or power. In Utopia it is known certain top kingdom might move spies into kingdoms of interest. Thus, culture must be higher gradient than projected ability. This gets us back to why we want the players we want. They must perform within the given culture to match and defeat kingdoms built on pure meta.

The cultural double down is based in the concept of big city boroughs. We have players from 5 different kingdoms and we keep those players together in 5 separate divisions in The Virtual Kingdom. We also have a kingdom design based in the full breadth of race and personality in the game. This is a nod to the devs and a nod to cities with the charm of Chinatown and Little Italy. Cities with these pockets of diversity tend to have trackable longevity; not so with nations. Cities are where wars become even in the street to street fighting as one will furiously defend ones home. So to understand these divisions is to understand micro and the path to lock horns with big picture meta. - Additionally, the spread appears as a ghetto on the kingdom page which speaks to its unassuming character.

[Madchess]

I've been working a bit with your setup and hope to add my contribution of player names and backstories latest in the weekend, I just have been to tired so far this week to get it all done at once.

[StratOcastle]

I've been working a bit with your setup and hope to add my contribution of player names and backstories latest in the weekend, I just have been to tired so far this week to get it all done at once.

Thank you. That's ok, take your time.

I've just started a new province in a war kingdom. There were times I wanted to just look in, but I suffer guilt knowing I'm joining a kingdom open to randoms. I noticed they had just crushed an inactive, but the kingdom is pretty active itself and they were welcoming.

Usually I'd lay out a bunch of philosophies and subtle tactics but I've had my share of RW distractions this age.

[makeo]

StratO, are you ever going to try monarchy again?

Or am I going to remain the only player to ever have the privilege? =P

[StratOcastle]

I'm thinking about it. You know how work can be.

If I could project a 3 age build up of The Virtual Kingdom I'd do it. But I'd really consider myself a commissar of TVK culture and doctrine rather than a monarch. I know that seems derivative but I anticipate a lot of resistance to the oil necessary to get the gears moving.

One of the peculiarities will be the implementation of the elliptical wave. I'm not mathy enough to explain it, but it works on a perpetual motion effect across time zones. It's simpler than it sounds, but it's the target evolution that requires navigation.

[Madchess]

I've focused some on personalities and experience with this as well as on putting in a few rl relations together with a manageable sized leadership. I totally got stuck on the names so I borrowed here and there, the only real player I have been in a kingdom with is BigHead. I also put in a few countries that people was from, but it was never my aim to add that to all, sometimes I have not listed age or experience either to keep it a bit shorter.

I hope it does not come out to weird since it was saved in notepad and I could not see the entire text at the same time.


Avian - warrior: amberjack - Nicknamed Black, one of our more seasoned players althougth he is not quite 30 years yet, has been with the kingdom two years and played a good +30 ages

Avian - tactician: barracuda - Nicknamed Amnesia, a fairly new player with great energy and he hardly seems to sleep, a student arroundt 21 years old, he has played rougthly 8 months with us and he is supervised by Amberjack to help with build

Avian - cleric: hammerhead shark - Nicknamed Shredder, she is part of leadership 38 years old and has been monarch for 4 ages but recently stepped down from that role due to rl issues, quite good at resisting chains and she occasionally lead the kingdoms own chains

Bocan - rogue: starfish - Nicknamed Salty, he is the oldest member of our kingdom at 64 years, has been playing since somewhere arround the single digit ages, believes Crisp is a total noob and that he do so much more to help in wars, he often tells stories about kingdoms he has been in and no one have heard of any of them.

Bocan - rogue: fangtooth - Nicknamed Crisp, he is 61 years old and thus the second oldest in our kingdom, he believes Salty is all talk. He said he has been playing since arround age 20 and he even got his grandchild to join the kingdom at one point althougth he did not end up staying for that long. He has been 3½ years in the kingdom

Bocan - rogue: coffinfish - Nicknamed Duke, he took over monarchy from shredder 3 ages ago and has been in leadership for longer. He is 29 years old and the nickname arrived from the nobility he normally achieves in the later part of the age, and althougth he don't believe he can achieve this with Bocan he has gotten to Viscount so far

Dark Elf - mystic: viperfish - Nicknamed Poison, she currently joined leadership this age but don't think to much of it, she has been with the kingdom for 6 ages and despite only being just 23 years she has shown great learning ability when it comes to the game.

Dark Elf - mystic: maori wrasse - Nicknamed Nymeria and a great fan of GoT she has only played for 2 years and recently has been a bit bussy with work, she is 32 years old and occasionally gets supervised on build strat by our Steward.

Dark Elf - mystic: pacific blackdragon Nicknamed John, maybe that is his real name, he is part of leadership and has been steward for changing leadership for 3 years, he is 44 years old and recently got married for the second time, yet he still mannages to stay so active some has raised concerns about how it is going to turn out.

Dryad - tactician: goliath grouper - Nickname Eagle, has been with the kingdom 12 ages, and been killed atleast 4 times including once when he got drunk and went MIA for 3 days in a war. He is 42 years old and got a solid understanding and 10 years of game experience on and off.

Dryad - tactician: tarpon - Nicknamed Wowbagger, he is 59 years old and has been playing since his best buddy Crisp introduced him to the kingdom 3 ages ago, he rarely speaks in chat much to the relief of everyone else since he can be quite vocal at times, still he does his part as a HA, but occassionally he is keept from hitting the chain target for reasons related to ip block.

Dwarf - heretic: blobfish - Nicknamed Viper, he is 39 yeas old and from Dubai, he has played less than some and more than others but still holds the position as chief strategist in the kingdom, he is part of the leadership

Dwarf - heretic: stargazer - Nicknamed Gamer, Utopia is just one of many games to this guy, he has played for 14 ages and has been in the kingdom for 10, he is most active during wars and plays mostly for the social aspect these days

Dwarf - heretic: gulper eel - Nicknamed Wolf, He is 35 years old and from Germany, he is a CoE of a small company and plays to relax from rl, he has been in the kingdom for 3 ages

Faery - sage: manta ray - Nicknamed Olga, She is 36 years old and married to Clockwork, rumors has it that she once singelhandedly destroyed the tribe of the Drevlians and her quest for vengeance against wrongdoings, real or immagined had put the team in a bad position a few times in the past, she has been arround in the game for over 15 years but has for family reasons stepped down from leadership a while back.

Faery - paladin: narcomedusae - Nicknamed Sunflower or Sunny at times, she is 25 years old and have been with the kingdom for arround 7 ages which is as long as she has played, occassionally she make newbie mistakes, but she has been better at asking advice lately, she always seems in a good mood and has a very positive approach, hence the nickname

Faery - paladin: vampire squid - No nickname simply uses his own name Eric at all time and will call out people who do not use that. He is 27 years old and has been playing for 20 ages or so, he was recently recruited from another kingdom as he did not like them going back on a war offer despite the circumstances

Human - warrior: sailfish - Nicknamed Coffin, with arround 50 ages of experience he is one of the people outside leadership that people turn to in time of need, he has briefly been Steward at one time since he plays from a timezone that was not covered by leadership when the kingdom seemed to be getting in trouble, he asked not to be part of leadership since he prefered just being a normal core player

Human - sage: nautilus - Nicknamed Warcry, he is 24 years old and has been playing for arround a year. He is fairly active due to being a university student, but wars in the weekends are rarely a good thing since he is often bound up by family matter or social obligations or so he says, there has been indications in the chat and elsewhere that he plan out just party and get wasted.

Human - cleric: sea urchin - Nicknamed BigHead, he was told to pick a HA race being new to the kingdom, his reply was that he was going Human because he is Human. No one seems to know anything about this player, but so far he has impressed the leadership, he appears to be one of those people who can make anything they pick work for themself.

Orc - war hero: goblin shark - Nicknamed Sauron, he is 33 years old and of course from Finland like all real orcs should be. He has been with the kingdom for 10 ages and occasionally he is part of the leadership, sometimes he dissapear for arround a week at a time and comes back long after everyone has given up on him, he still are well liked so he always gets back, even when he occasionally needs to restart his province.

Orc - cleric: blue marlin - Nicknamed Clockwork, he is quite bussy during the day, but always pop in for a hit on the 11th and 23rd and can be found on most other times between 22nd and 4th, He is 37 years old and married to Olga, they got 3 children so far.

Undead - paladin: giant trevally - Nicknamed Kid, he is 15 years old and the youngest in the kingdom, he has 4 ages of experience and mainly idle in chat to escape rl, still he is on fairly often and thus went Paladin.

Undead - sage: blue ringed octopus - Nicknamed Sherman, a worker at a military instalation and a gun enthusiast, he has been playing for barely 2 months and is not particulairily active outside war. He is 42 years old and from Scotland.

Undead - war hero: dory - Nicknamed Daddylongleg he is 47 years old and has played for 5 ages. Concerns has been made regarding this player since he occasionally makes dirty jokes to some of the female members of the team which creeps several of them out. He has been warned on two occasions, but it is likely just a matter of time before he goes to far and gets taken off the team

[StratOcastle]

This is magnificent, Madchess.

Thank you.

It's 2am and I just popped over to check. Now I look forward to my day so I can spend some time enjoying your work.

[MyNameIsMatija]

I like BigHead.

[StratOcastle]

I like BigHead.

Googled that. They were who we thought they were. And we let 'em off the hook!

But yeah, we've got them here in Ohio. We call them Asian carp.

[Madchess]

Just remembered I kind of forgot to check out how these people do in the divisions you made, ideally you want some experienced in each division and likely you want leadership spread out too, can't even remember how many I decided was in leadership, but I think 5 or 6.

[StratOcastle]

Makes sense.

My idea of council was one member from each division and the monarch. In a previous Virtual Kingdom there's an outline for various departments:

Diplomacy
Intel
Global strategy/outlook
Kingdom strategy
Elliptical Wave Coordinator
Commerce

Part of the intel system is each province is responsible for Snatch News on a specific kingdom. This can change depending on priorities.

The Eliptical Wave Coordinator provides general wave guidance and deeper micro for divisions that may require expertise in achieving various tactical objectives. It involves maximizing time and effect through orbital efficiency. This isn't just a war time responsibility as it involves monitoring offensive and defensive variables throughout the age.

While some departments may appear daunting in their scope it's important to remember that each division functions semi-independently. This relieves leadership pressure through delegating best case scenarios to the divisions and their ability to adapt in real time. Assistance is provided for divisions who may be falling short of objectives.