So far, so disappointing

[The Reformed American Republic]

Sailiopia, I never thought one faction would take over the whole top 10 list either.

[Nrevyw]

Why are there multiple Crabs of the Apocalypse factions?

Probably so that they could sweep the top 5 positions at the end - I wouldn't be surprised if this was their strategy from the beginning. Make a pact with the Potatoes, eliminate every medium-large faction, then take out Potato and end up with a complete domination of the day. Great advertising for them and their respective regions.

This wasn't the plan from the beginning actually, since we had no idea how successful we were going to be. It only became the plan around hour 4 or 5 into N-day.

[Volgastaat]

Update: I've left The Potato Alliance and joined the Liberty Democratic Alliance's faction, as they are a region that my region is pretty close to. I've started targeting and firing nukes at small, undefended regions to get some score. But even this isn't possible.

Turns out that CotA are so bored that they are now defending neutral factions, to avoid medium-sized factions from climbing back up the scoreboard. If anything, this is evidence of how broken this minigame is. When a faction becomes so dominant that they are defending factions that no-one has ever heard of because they don't have anything to do with their shields, then something has gone wrong.

We must institute one or several of these ideas for next N-day: A cap on nations in a faction, WA membership requirement for taking part, or preventing shielding of nukes not sent from or directed to your own faction. Ideally a combination of these, and other tweaks, must be made for next N-day to prevent something like this happening again.

They were doing it last night when Potato was still around. Montealba was trying to nuke their own puppets and CoTA blocked that. Its not boredom, its policy it seems.

[IWCA 035]

If you're not a crab you're not allowed points xD

(Joking aside thats actually the policy)

[Minoa]

Okay so I saw OP mentioning the lack of other Super-factions, and as a member of one of those mentioned here I think I might be able to explain.

I am, or rather "was" in a sense, a member of Fuster Cluck. The reason we didn't participate is because a lot of our members said via discord that they wouldn't be able to participate this year due to IRL stuff. So I'm guessing the same happened with like Augustin Alliance, Ba Sing Se and ATOMIC and are facing similair issues in the the top brass thus they didn't partake either.

Hope I added anything of substance with this. I will say that spectating this N-Day it does look indeed like absolute horseshit.

I understand your observations. However, I feel that how the 6th Nuclear Apocalypse turned out this year has demonstrated how superfactions have become unsustainable: when other superfactions are forced to sit out due to IRL issues, the whole structure crashes down with disastrous lopsided consequences. As East Stal Saillnerce stated:

It was inevitable, we just didn’t know when. I guess that “when” was now.

[Sailiopia]

Well this is over and I'd say that this has been a complete and utter failure. Personally, none of my nations survived, with two dying earlier in the day from CotA onslaughts, and then the rest falling in the last 5 minutes due to radiation and an inability to create shields fast enough.

But on a wider note, I'd say that it has shown the problem of having only two ultra-alliances. When one falls, the other one sweeps the board and the rest of the event becomes mega-boring for everyone who isn't in that alliance. The only people I've seen on these forums who have enjoyed the event are from CotA, and even then some say they would have preferred a proper fight. Last time, most people who posted said that they enjoyed it - whether they were obliterated in ATOMIC/Potato Alliance during the early stages, the Horsemen in the later stages, successful in the AA overall, or in one of the other superfactions (such as BSS and Fuster Cluck). This time, it's only some members of the largest faction. Everyone else is disappointed.

Something needs to be done to fix it for next time - I don't believe that we're going to see anything different, if regions believe that they can win with CotA, they will stay with CotA. Some may try to form their own factions, but this would require some big diplomatic co-operation. And they will inevitably be replaced by other regions joining CotA. The Potatoes might grow stronger as well, but not as much and we'll end up having a repeat of this year. So something needs to be done to prevent an occurrence like this happening again - if it doesn't happen next time, then I think it will happen the year after.

Some people have proposed abolishing the minigame altogether, I would say that's a bit drastic but I appreciate the sentiment. Maybe just some quite big technical changes instead.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for supporting each other through this not enjoyable N-day, I look forward to Z-day where we can hopefully have some fun.

[Roavin]

I don't believe that we're going to see anything different

Yes, you will. Most players (and that includes the horsemen) prefer a competitive fight, even if that means losing (like we did last year).

[Sailiopia]

Well at least we're now having a proper discussion in Technical about possible ideas by now. We can turn this negative into a positive. If we make reasonable changes, then this hopefully won't happen again, and we can turn a disappointing event into one which we can all enjoy.

[North Saitama]

Hell, I didn't even care about winning; I just wanted to have fun instead of being wiped-out in 15 minutes for simply existing. What the Crabcakes did was just griefing.