CivWiki:Featured/Summer and Fall 2023
This page lists features from July 2023 to December 2023. (Fewer features were published during this period than others, so both pages are combined.)
July 2023
July 3, 2023
This week's featured article was written by Xcios and Slusshi.
From the Featured Article Bloom is a group of players that originated from RebirthCraft, and first joined the Civ Genre on CivClassic. Settling in the -,-, their town building theme often pulled from Parisian influences and featured a government consisting of democratically elected Members of Parliament and a Prime Minister. During the Infinity War, Bloom was kicked from the UDF after Columbia caught them playing games with NATO. This resulted in Bloom moving to CivRealms, and in 2021, handing the ownership of the state over to Icenia. Once on CivRealms, Bloom existed as an entity within the nation of Carbon. There was nothing as significant as the two previous cities due to the limited time and resources on the server, but was still able to build a trenched city with an accompanying vault. After the death of CivRealms, Bloom remained stagnant until the release of CivMC. In later months, Bloom consisted of the core members from its towny and CivClassics days. Bloom is a group that consists mainly of buildfriends and grinders, and their playstyles reflect that make-up, resulting in the government being less democratic and more assigned. Today, Bloom exists as a state of Icenia. (Full article...) |
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July 10, 2023
This week's featured article was written by User:Prawny331.
From the Featured Article The Great War was a war in late 2020 on the server CivRealms 2.0 between the coalition (Carbon, Northern Defensive Pact and Rhodesia) and the USA, which was a coalition of former enemies (notably Blackwater, Olympia, Chungus and later Savaguard). The War started following the obbybombing of the trade city CivCorp, and the following fallout developed into an all-out war between the bombers and their allies and much of the rest of the server. The conflict also spilled over into the New World, with several bombers seeking to form a new state in the isolated shard, starting the Barbary War. The war saw several major vaults fall, starting with the incomplete Varathian and Bloom vaults, the Napistan vault Daybreak (in which Carbon's leader, Convoy, was pearled) and eventually the Yggdrasil vault Asgard after a prolonged two week siege. The fall of Asgard was devastating to the allies, losing many pearls and most of the pearls they'd obtained in the defence in the failed retreat to the megavault Heaven. The war directly led to the collapse in activity on the server, due to a large number of combatants being pearled as the war developed into a stalemate with only bots remaining active. During the war, admins also made controversial decisions that changed the outcome of the war, including banning Citadel bombing for a short period, creating a "King of the Ashes" rule, adding a small chance to instantly kill a player following the fall of Asgard, and banning of most of the USA. Following the war, the server's activity never recovered, with most players returning to Civclassic or joining CivUniverse. (Full article...) |
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July 17, 2023
From the Featured Article The Great Overland Railway’s iteration on CivClassic was an international rail line that connected many of the major cities and nations on the server. Created by Yoahtl (CivClassic) in 2018, its initial stretch from its allies in the NCA to Mount Augusta was monumental for its time. From its namesake, the line was an overground route, unlike the vast majority of rail lines on the server. The railway has not been without controversy; Mount Augusta and the Holy Jaded Empire were wary of northern expansion as neither preferred to host foreign infrastructure in their territory. During the Infinity War, a trap was constructed under the railway by Mir to capture NATO fighters, a move that has been widely panned by SATO and Yoahtlan allies. Although development was paused during bgbba’s ban, extensions northwards to Icenia and south to Laconia were constructed by the server’s end in 2021. Upon its creation, the line routed players automatically using Snitches; when RailSwitch became available, it pioneered the use of the plugin to route players. Today, a second Great Overland Railway is currently in construction on CivMC, currently stretching from Lambat, Yoahtl, and Lusitania, with plans to extend westward. The construction of the railway and the surrounding movement inspired many nations to rethink their transportation infrastructure and shift their rails aboveground. (Full article...) |
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July 24, 2023
This week's featured article was written by iinkuu.
From the Featured Article The Forum for International Diplomacy (FID) was an intergovernmental organization on CivClassic, founded in late 2020 during the Infinity War, and disbanded later that same year. The FID was founded by The Commonwealth, Mount Augusta, Icenia, Yoahtl, Holy Jaded Empire, Gabon, Gensokyo, and the CCCP. The FID aimed to foster international diplomacy, develop friendly relations among nations and overall, bring the international community together. “The Forum operated on a consensus-based model, with a particular focus on promoting and supporting dialogue between its members.” Free discussion was encouraged by the FID, its members permitted to call for a meeting at any time concerning matters of international importance, with the meetings overseen by an impartial team of moderators. The FID’s end ultimately came down to its member nations not foreseeing the amount of bureaucracy needed to establish a solid foundation for such a forum, nor for carrying out the goals they wished to accomplish. With dwindling interest, an unstable foundation and the community’s general consensus on United Nations formations on Civ, the forum disbanded. Though the Forum is one of many different attempts of UN formations on Civ, it has generally been regarded the furthest attempt to bring an international coalition of nations together. The idea of a server-wide UN is still an idea that is passed around but generally disregarded. (Full article...) |
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July 31, 2023
From the Featured Article The Generic War was a major serverwide war on CivMC between Rhode Island and Estalia’s allies in the Elysian Pact. The war started in late July 2022 following continued grievances from CivClassic and Civcraft. Despite efforts to de-escalate tensions between the countries, Rhode Island declared war on Estalia following an incident on one of their citizens. The war was marked by large and disruptive obbybombings in Estalia’s holdings in 0,0 and Icenia, along with an unsuccessful but intrusive campaign in Pavia. A third front also occurred in Blockchainistan after accusations from Titan Industries of aiding Rhode Island. Rogue raiders associated with Rhode Island also roamed the newly-launched server, making the war’s effect felt throughout every nation. On the morning of September 17, CivMC admins announced they banned numerous accounts associated with Rhode Island, declaring their actions to be detrimental to server culture and long-term growth. Shortly after this announcement, a coalition of fighters from all across the server sieged and begun to break the Rhode Island vault, not before minor skirmishes occurred. Blockchainistan soon fell a few days later. With coverage from multiple newspapers such as the Lambat Post and Pavian Tribune, the war has been one of the most reported in Civ history. (Full article...) |
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August 2023
August 7, 2023
From the Featured Article The United Provinces of the Plus Plus, commonly abbreviated U3P, was a military and economic alliance throughout the +,+ region during Civcraft 2.0. Consisting of Blackcrown, New Danzilona, Little Latvia, Loveshack, and Holy Tree, among others, the countries formed the alliance due to continued raids and desire for further cooperation in the quadrant. Additionally, they were able to give protectorate status to other nations who were not in the quadrant. Compared to other alliances at the time, the U3P had a relatively concrete governmental structure, with an elected senate and secretary general, and reasonable joining policies. Additionally, they were able to provide bastions, XP access, snitches, nether portal access and other various late-game services to their alliance members. The U3P was one of the major alliances of Civcraft 2.0, and made agreements with the NEA and Prussia, among others. Despite this, the alliance had not been involved in most of the major wars, although international agreements would be broken upon the breakout of the Riverford War. In later iterations, the U3P became the main group for founding the Volantian Federation in Civcraft 3.0, and Provincia in CivClassic. (Full article...) |
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August 14, 2023
From the Featured Article Citadel is a commonly used Civ plugin and mechanic that allows players to reinforce blocks, which require other players to break blocks multiple times in order to break the block entirely. Although any material could be configured for use, stone, iron and diamond are used as materials by precedence over many servers, representing a low, medium, and high amount of number of breaks. Citadel is heavily tied to NameLayer groups, which allow permissions on who can access which blocks. Additionally, Citadel includes acid blocks, which are special blocks that automatically break reinforced blocks over a long period of time, which does not require the player to be present. The main use of the plugin has generally been for protecting player-made builds; it allows large cities and defensive infrastructure to be formed without too much threat of raiders. However, quicker reinforcement times have enabled raiders to place hard-to-break blocks very quickly for disruptive purposes, such as creating vaults or “obbybombing” cities. Despite multiple changes and pushback, Citadel remains a critical part of Civ servers in order for nations to grow. (Full article...) |
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August 21, 2023
From the Featured Article Kaltsburg's iteration on CivClassic 2.0 was a German-themed monarchy focused on amicable foreign relations and realistic builds. Founded near Varkonia in 2018, the country received significant support from SPQR in their early days due to continued raids in the territory. The country maintained amicable relations with most nations on the server; the country was never involved in any wars and became an observer state of the first United Northern Congress and the Council of the Medi Sea. The country had several provinces, whose leaders made up a council to advice King deyan. After a hiatus in 2020, the leaders decided to move the country over to the western quadrants for more land. The country focused on both infrastructure and exporting their German culture, with its simplistic yet distinctly baroque European builds, and building up a trade network through construction of a market and the Great Overland Railway passing nearby. They also established a national brewery, which experimented with the Brewery plugin. The country’s Italian-spiritual successor, Florence, briefly claimed territory in CivMC, but were annexed by Kallos following the Generic War. (Full article...) |
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August 28, 2023
From the Featured Article Civball is a popular art style in Civ, with heavy inspiration from Polandball, that depicts Civ nations in various activities. The art style features deliberately poorly drawn spheroid characters that represent Civ nations, alliances, and more entities that are related to Civ, in various contexts depending on the comic, and are usually filled with numerous in-jokes relating to the country drawn. The origin of Civball is generally unknown although most trace its origin back to the Civcraft years. It saw a resurgence throughout CivClassic, with numerous Civballs highlighting major events such as the Somber War (pictured), the formation of the UDF, and calls to edit CivWiki (which remains the logo of the site) and the Unified Map Project. Although the typical adaption of Civballs are for webcomics or drawings, there are semi-regular Civball Maps of the World throughout Civ, including those in 2014, 2019 and 2021. Today, Civballs are regular mainstays of Civ Art, with a Map of the World for CivMC in production. (Full article...) |
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September 2023
September 4, 2023
From the Featured Article Mount September was a democratic nation on CivClassic, founded as a spiritual successor to Mount Augusta. Created following the latter’s move to CivRealms, the country aimed to preserve the culture of Augusta as a new country. Founded to the east of the original city, the country quickly grew with a new voter tree and mall, and within a year had a thriving political system with a Mayor, Judges, and Cupboard (akin to a Cabinet). The country also participated in the Augustan Federation, a loose alliance of all the nations within Mount Augusta’s sphere of influence in order for better cooperation in the region, as well as maintaining relationships to close allies in Gabon and Lusitania. Their political system lent itself numerous conflicts; continued spits with South Augusta leader TheOrangeWizard were common. The Mount September Ice Road Conflict sprouted from issues with the UDF, who set off alarms near its bunker. However, the country had a weirder, laidback sense of culture. Although events like the Lunar Near Year occurred in the country, the “septem” currency, the first PacStatue, and pictures of founder Squareblob’s profile image were common areas of foolery. CivMC’s iteration of Mount Augusta was set to be a Septembrian successor, however, its main figureheads were not reelected after its early days. (Full article...) |
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September 11, 2023
From the Featured Article Impasse, officially the Kingdom of Impasse, was an early active nation on CivClassic. Built from foundations from nations like Aquila on Devoted 3.0 and Civcraft 3.0 along with various nations in Civcraft 2.0, the country aimed to be a general newfriend recruiting nation focused on building. Its two main districts were built in a renaissance style along with a ’80s and futuristic style. Within its first few months, Impasse made alliances with Hjaltland and built the HITS in cooperation with the country and was a founding member of the Western Alliance, but fell inactive during the Somber War. The country eventually renamed to Corvus and converted itself to a corporation, maintaining shops in various countries such as Gabon and Icenia. However, they began cooperating with NATO sometime during 2020 and began construction of a vault hole in late 2020. aided various raiders during the War of the Coalition, leading to their ultimate destruction during The Fall of Corvus. (Full article...) |
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September 25, 2023
From the Featured Article The HCF War (Civcraft 2.0) was the first major war during Civcraft 2.0. The second surge of players of Hardcore Factions players on Civcraft known as the Bloodcrew, the war scaled up after a raiding party of well-known HCF players such as ZeroRussia and Jarl_Heisenberg targeted Carson and the Commonwealth in the summer of 2013. In response, a coalition, self-named the World Police after previous iterations on Civcraft 1.0, was formed by citizens of Aurora, Bryn, Carson, and Kappi, among others that would join later. Skirmishes between the groups occurred across the server, especially in unaligned countries. The war eventually scaled to be one of the first major wars to involve several vaults and breaks, with many players on both sides being pearled, numerous attempts by HCF Players to log in on VPN alts, and deliberate sabotage involving snitches on both sides to lag out players, The World Police also dealt with rumors of supplying the enemy, being revealed at the final vault break in February 2014, with the Commonwealth being griefed as a result. Unlike the end of most wars, however, activity fell following the war as nearly every major city was devastating following mass raiding by the Bloodcrew. (Full article...) |
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October/November 2023
October 16, 2023
From the Featured Article Tierra de Conciencia, commonly initialized as TdC, was a communist nation on CivClassic 2.0 focused on creating a Spanish-themed state as a collective. The country was founded at the start of the iteration, located in the north of the map, initially near Mount Augusta’s first settlement. A few months after its founding, the country initially rose within the summer of 2017 after a series of raids on the founders, griefs on the town, and other conflicts, Tierra de Conciencia split the island and then annexed Mount Augusta’s settlement as they moved south, closer to The Commonwealth. They would face a series of raids and small conflicts with ProgramMC and Nipplerock within the next months. The country’s capital, aptly named El Capitolio, was intent on a brutalist building style, notably constructing a library whose architecture depicted notable communist works as books. They also heavily invested in infrastructure, contributing to the early construction of the HITS, an underground railway that stretched from Hjaltland to Impasse. By 2019 despite an attempted resurgence, the country fell into inactivity, and many players went to other nations, primarily Mount Augusta. (Full article...) |
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October 23, 2023
From the Featured Article The City of England, sometimes known as England, is a nation founded on CivClassic and built in a medieval style. Named as a joke after a lyric in an infamous rap song, an initial settlement was built in 2017 before the nation became inactive in 2017, and their claims were ceded to SPQR. When some founders of the nation returned in 2019, the founders eventually rebuilt south of their initial area. Although the country were never involved in any alliances, a considerable number of nations gave their support for the country in the Jomsviking-England Incident in 2021, where the Jomsviking Confederation attempted to stage a coup. The country was mainly known for its large and elaborate builds. Its capital is a large castle surrounded by farms, surrounded by crypts and chambers. It also contains a number of other builds such as Fort Beak, a massive Coliseum-like structure, and its Monastery and Cathedral Ruins, whose bridge goes over a deep canyon with tall arches. Today, the City of England mainly plays in today’s iteration of SPQR on CivMC. (Full article...) |
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October 30, 2023
This week's featured article received help from User:Prawny331.
From the Featured Article Inferno was a nation in the Cerberus shard of the short-lived server Devoted Hell. Formed by prawny331 along with colleagues from CivRealms and Otonabee, the nation was modeled after the nine circles of hell from the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy. After the early days of server hiccups, raids and issues with the subscription model, Inferno became one of the fastest growing countries on the server building up a city relatively quickly along a large lava lake. The country began construction of their giant rings of hell during February 2021, making use of popular movie nights to speed up mining. The city that they first built, Izalith, was the third-place winner of the server’s build contest, and hosted the first XP shops on the server, along with the Church of Cola, honoring the admin’s logbox in the territory, and engaged in international diplomacy by joining the newFRIENDS alliance with Mercer and Alexandria, along with being a major stop on the 2048 superhighway that ran across all shards. Despite massive planning, player numbers dwindled and Inferno became the last active nation on the server prior to March 2021. Today, most players currently play in CivMC’s Nara, Icenia, or other associated countries. (Full article…) (Full article...) |
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November 20, 2023
This feature is a combination of the newsletters released between November 13th and November 20th.
From the Featured Article Realistic Biomes is a plugin commonly found on Civ servers to adjust crop growth times. Used normally to balance experience production, Realistic Biomes adjusts crop growth and breeding to be dependent on biomes, and light visibility, as well as adjust crop growth times to take hours or days for a crop to be fully harvestable. Optimal growth times usually are around three to eight hours, but are lower in less corresponding biomes, for example, potatoes grow well in winter-themed biomes, like taigas or tundras, but do not grow in hot biomes, like deserts or jungles. Originally debuting on Civcraft, it became a mainstay of Civ servers to this day, as it slowed player progression down to prevent quick enchantments. Clay can be used to speed up growth times to up to 33%, and glowstone or lamp-like blocks can be used to simulate greenhouse-environments underground. Crop growth is also persistent, meaning that it will continue to grow while chunks are unloaded. Development on the plugin continues to this day and has been used on every mainline Civ server since Civcraft. (Full article...) |
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December 2023
December 5, 2023
From the Featured Article Devoted was a Civ franchise running as a experimental server that intended to continue Civcraft’s political framework while also emphasizing PvP interactions and new gameplay designs. Founded by ProgrammerDan and Bonkill during Civcraft 2.0 in 2015, the server initially ran two iterations. Its third iteration is the franchise’s most well-known, as it became generally recognized as the mainline server following the failure of Civcraft 3.0 earlier in 2016. Wars were generally frequent on the server with frequent targets being Persia, Volterra, Ruin, and others. Devoted 3.0 also included nations on Civ that had little or did not pursue involvement in wars. Mount Augusta hosted the Maester Library on Devoted 3.0 and became the main city that the Maester Alliance played in for future iterations. Aquila, one of the largest cities on the server, had a capital city shaped like an eagle’s head. The server waned in activity following the launches of CivEx 3.0 and CivClassic 2.0, and shut down around October 2017. In 2021, the franchise launched Devoted Hell, an iteration of Civ that was only playable in the Nether. Today, Devoted has been a major influence of Civ to this day, with HiddenOre, CastleGates, and more evergreen features originating from the franchise. (Full article...) |
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December 11, 2023
From the Featured Article Pearled Harbor was an event in Columbia that resulted in many unpearlings from the Crucible, a vault in their territory. On December 7, 2021, KnotNSA, a former high-ranking official in the Columbia government, released the vast majority of pearls along with burning valuables that were stored in the vault. The event had thought to be stemmed from a personal dispute between Knot and Doommad. The name was a joke of prison pearls being released, along with the event coinciding with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Among those freed were fighters from the Infinity War, Lowtuff, Kdeeks, and other related associates, among others. KnotNSA did so after Kallos obtained information that the server was ending following a leak from TealNerd that he wished to conclude CivClassic. Kallos promised to protect KnotNSA, and issues surrounding the event resulted in panic of another war between the UDF and Kallos. The event only solidified the decision as TealNerd announcement that the server was closing due to causing substantial consequences; and the server continued as CivLegacy the following year. (Full article...) |
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December 18, 2023
From the Featured Article The Somber War was a global military conflict between Lexington and several economically and militarily powerful nations, loosely defined as the Western Alliance. The war was sometimes regarded as a natural successor to the Titan War during Civcraft 2.0, as many of the belligerents and grudges during the war were passed down from Nox. The conflict started as skirmishes and small conflicts in The Commonwealth and their boroughs in late 2017, however following a large-scale obbybombing in their capital, Westminster, the conflict became global as allies rallied their support. Several notable Commonwealth players were pearled in the End, and fights broke out between The Commonwealth’s ally, Hjaltland, and Lexington. After a long period of inactivity in early 2018 and an update to the newest version, the Western Alliance destroyed the Lexington Vault during the Fall of Lexington, where nearly all players who were pearled were freed. Although a period of peace lasted throughout the rest of 2018, continued grudges from some of Lexington’s supporters led to the Infinity War. (Full article...) |
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December 28, 2023
From the Featured Article The Christmas Agreement was a document signed by Lusitania and Mount September in December 2020. The countries had been relatively close since the founding of Mount September along with various out-of-game activities throughout 2020; the treaty was a way to formalize their diplomatic relations and foster economic growth between the two nations. Among other agreements in the treaty was a railway line to be dug to improve the slow travel times, with both countries outside of the HITS international rail. The treaty was fostered under Septembrian Foreign Minister Thraldrek, and was signed by Mayor Squareblob of Mount September and King Metriximor of Lusitania. The alliance was one of the first outreaches of diplomacy during Mount September, and would later lead into the creation of the Augustan Federation (with Lusitania) shortly after. This was also one of the rare moments of Lusitania engaging in diplomacy, as they preferred to stay out of any conflicts. The treaty solidified the relationship between the two countries as they continued strong well into 2021. (Full article...) |
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