My impression of N-day 2021

[Archinstinct]

This is my impression of the event: It was boring because of the megafactions, and one faction controlling thousands of nations through scripts to roll on smaller players, along with just claiming all the spots of the leaderboard on the main page is enough to turn off any casual player. Crabs of the apocalypse won the event hands down, but new players (people that joined between last year and now) have been turned off(see other threads in vault 41). This is not good long term for the community if the outcome this year is going to be normal occurrence going forward every N-day.

From my personal experience, I was in the potato alliance this year. I didn't get why my faction made a deal with the crabs of the apocalypse, the only other major faction during this event since sweeze waltzed in with 1000 nations and capped the catgirls faction. Even if the Augustin Alliance joined as a faction, and I learned they won previous N-Day events, sweeze likely would have solo'd them too or they would have been knocked out quickly because the potato alliance and the crabs of the apocalypse had a pact.

Anyway, I got ordered to make shields for about the first hour or so, then the rest of the time was spent rolling the minor alliances. I had trouble finding targets ( I only hit 1 or 2 this event) and nobody ever fired at me. This was the constant for 8 straight hours until I got bored and logged off to go to sleep. I guess at some point this nation got nuked by 7AM (about ten hours ago) eastern time by the Crabs because they ran out of targets, and before noon (4 hours ago now) there's nobody left and the crabs were spamming the leaderboard because fascists are yucky and it's funny kick them off.

Again, the event was boring and over too quickly because it suffered serious balancing and pacing issues with people using scripts to manhandle entire factions and everybody piling into only a few factions and rolling anybody else before the event is halfway over.

My suggestions for next year's N-day, both for the community and administrator and staff, none of these are linked to another
-Ban scripts from being used for this event. Everything should be manually done.
-Factions should not be making pacts with other factions to avoid attacking each other. This is stupid. If you don't want to attack somebody in another faction, then join that faction.
-Limit membership to factions in some way, either making factions region-locked or require WA membership.
-puppets may need to be banned.
EDIT: - Drew Durrnil's faction cap size: viewtopic.php?f=41&t=510351

Overall, I'm being generous and give this event a 5/10. It's really a 4/10 but since this is a free browser game and it was entirely optional to get involved it got a bump in score from me. This event was meh. I guess it was fun while people could play, but it has some serious problems. If the NS community is reliant upon events like this to bolster player retention alongside regular game content, we're falling short and we can do better.

[Comfed]

None of the puppets were bots. All of the puppets were controlled manually by real live humans.

[Archinstinct]

Corrected that typo. I meant to put puppets.

[The New California Republic]

Factions should not be making pacts with other factions to avoid attacking each other. This is stupid. If you don't want to attack somebody in another faction, then join that faction.

But how could it be stopped? The admins can't code the game to prevent pacts...

[Archinstinct]

Factions should not be making pacts with other factions to avoid attacking each other. This is stupid. If you don't want to attack somebody in another faction, then join that faction.

But how could it be stopped? The admins can't code the game to prevent pacts...

Through reploid productions deploying the moderation martial arts on rulebreakers accordingly.

[The New California Republic]

But how could it be stopped? The admins can't code the game to prevent pacts...

Through reploid productions deploying the moderation martial arts on rulebreakers accordingly.

A pact could be organised outside of NS, such as on Discord, you couldn't stop it.

[Archinstinct]

Through reploid productions deploying the moderation martial arts on rulebreakers accordingly.

A pact could be organised outside of NS, such as on Discord, you couldn't stop it.

Well in the case of this year which i'm making the suggestion base on, the potato alliance put on their WFE "mutual defense pact with crabs of the apocalypse" or something along that line. So that is what i'm looking at.

It's ultimately up to moderation how to handle it. I'm only making the criticism.

[Doge Land]

This is my impression of the event: It was boring because of the megafactions, and one faction controlling thousands of bots through scripts to roll on smaller players, along with just claiming all the spots of the leaderboard on the main page is enough to turn off any casual player. Crabs of the apocalypse won the event hands down, but new players (people that joined between last year and now) have been turned off(see other threads in vault 41). This is not good long term for the community if the outcome this year is going to be normal occurrence going forward every N-day.

From my personal experience, I was in the potato alliance this year. I didn't get why my faction made a deal with the crabs of the apocalypse, the only other major faction during this event since sweeze waltzed in with 1000 nations and capped the catgirls faction. Even if the Augustin Alliance joined as a faction, and I learned they won previous N-Day events, sweeze likely would have solo'd them too or they would have been knocked out quickly because the potato alliance and the crabs of the apocalypse had a pact.

Anyway, I got ordered to make shields for about the first hour or so, then the rest of the time was spent rolling the minor alliances. I had trouble finding targets ( I only hit 1 or 2 this event) and nobody ever fired at me. This was the constant for 8 straight hours until I got bored and logged off to go to sleep. I guess at some point this nation got nuked by 7AM (about ten hours ago) eastern time by the Crabs because they ran out of targets, and before noon (4 hours ago now) there's nobody left and the crabs were spamming the leaderboard because fascists are yucky and it's funny kick them off.

Again, the event was boring and over too quickly because it suffered serious balancing and pacing issues with people using scripts to manhandle entire factions and everybody piling into only a few factions and rolling anybody else before the event is halfway over.

My suggestions for next year's N-day, both for the community and administrator and staff, none of these are linked to another
-Ban scripts from being used for this event. Everything should be manually done.
-Factions should not be making pacts with other factions to avoid attacking each other. This is stupid. If you don't want to attack somebody in another faction, then join that faction.
-Limit membership to factions in some way, either making factions region-locked or require WA membership.
-puppets may need to be banned.

Overall, I'm being generous and give this event a 5/10. It's really a 4/10 but since this is a free browser game and it was entirely optional to get involved it got a bump in score from me. This event was meh. I guess it was fun while people could play, but it has some serious problems. If the NS community is reliant upon events like this to bolster player retention alongside regular game content, we're falling short and we can do better.

> Ban scripts from being used for this event. Everything should be manually done.
Personally I didn't use any scripts since I only managed like 3 puppets this time around, but this just sounds like an all-around bad idea... The best way to counter scripts is to use scripts yourself, and be better at it.

> Factions should not be making pacts with other factions to avoid attacking each other. This is stupid. If you don't want to attack somebody in another faction, then join that faction.
Funny joke bro. While you may not have noticed it this year because there were 2 major alliances, back in last year NAPs were vital to winning. If it wasn't for NAPs I don't think the Potato Alliance would have gotten 2nd in 2020.

> Limit membership to factions in some way, either making factions region-locked or require WA membership.
You can make your faction open to all, locked to the region it's founded in, or just locked in general. WA requirement is stupid. Stop suggesting WA requirements. They solve 0 problems and create 10 more.

> puppets may need to be banned.
How to counter puppets: Make puppets

I understand that most people don't have the time or resources to run a giant puppet army but what's 10 puppets running in Firefox containers? Not much. Just keep refreshing and it should be fine.

> If the NS community is reliant upon events like this to bolster player retention alongside regular game content
That's the thing; we're not. Player retention is usually completely managed by the region the player is in and if the region doesn't make a good attempt at keeping the player on the site, using N-Day or not, the player will leave, and that's that. I should know. I suck at player retention.

[Anagonia]

A lot of my region-mates and myself stayed out of it. I know a few of us agreed it was too much effort. For myself, I was just tired of the event itself. Every year, same result, same destruction. But I can see the appeal. Honestly this year I chuckled a bit by the factions and the big crab meme going on. Good for them finding fun for such a boring affair - boring for myself, I mean.

[The New California Republic]

A pact could be organised outside of NS, such as on Discord, you couldn't stop it.

Well in the case of this year which i'm making the suggestion base on, the potato alliance put on their WFE "mutual defense pact with crabs of the apocalypse" or something along that line. So that is what i'm looking at.

To skirt round any "no pact" rule, all that would have to be done is for them to say "don't target Potato Alliance", that doesn't necessarily indicate the existence of a pact, it could just be that whatever faction that has that on their page doesn't want to provoke Potato Alliance. See how ineffectual a no pact rule would be?

[The Serbian Empire]

Only way to fix this is to never have another N-Day with off-site tech like Discord being directly involved in the system formation. As in WA membership wouldn't stop a schemer who makes puppets only for well... events. There's nothing to prevent collusion. IPs can be circumvented by VPNs, etc. There's nothing that stops what we saw.

[The Reformed American Republic]

Only way to fix this is to never have another N-Day with off-site tech like Discord being directly involved in the system formation. As in WA membership wouldn't stop a schemer who makes puppets only for well... events. There's nothing to prevent collusion. IPs can be circumvented by VPNs, etc. There's nothing that stops what we saw.

I think smaller factions would help. Yes, there can be collusion, but sooner or later, the axe would come down.

[The Serbian Empire]

Only way to fix this is to never have another N-Day with off-site tech like Discord being directly involved in the system formation. As in WA membership wouldn't stop a schemer who makes puppets only for well... events. There's nothing to prevent collusion. IPs can be circumvented by VPNs, etc. There's nothing that stops what we saw.

I think smaller factions would help. Yes, there can be collusion, but sooner or later, the axe would come down.

What is to prevent 1000 Crabs regions/factions that work together as a phlanx?

[Archinstinct]

Well in the case of this year which i'm making the suggestion base on, the potato alliance put on their WFE "mutual defense pact with crabs of the apocalypse" or something along that line. So that is what i'm looking at.

To skirt round any "no pact" rule, all that would have to be done is for them to say "don't target Potato Alliance", that doesn't necessarily indicate the existence of a pact, it could just be that whatever faction that has that on their page doesn't want to provoke Potato Alliance. See how ineffectual a no pact rule would be?

Look, you're in the crabs of the apocalypse so I can't see it because for all I know you're nitpicking to defend your faction's victory at the expense of everybody else. If you disagree with me, then make a suggestion for how to handle the problems with the event. Make your own post or thread, stating how you found it and make your own suggestions.

[The Reformed American Republic]

I think smaller factions would help. Yes, there can be collusion, but sooner or later, the axe would come down.

What is to prevent 1000 Crabs regions/factions that work together as a phlanx?

I called for the banning of duplicate factions to prevent more than one crabs "faction."

[The New California Republic]

To skirt round any "no pact" rule, all that would have to be done is for them to say "don't target Potato Alliance", that doesn't necessarily indicate the existence of a pact, it could just be that whatever faction that has that on their page doesn't want to provoke Potato Alliance. See how ineffectual a no pact rule would be?

Look, you're in the crabs of the apocalypse so I can't see it because for all I know you're nitpicking to defend your faction's victory at the expense of everybody else.

So you are choosing not to respond to my criticism, and instead go down the route of questioning my credibility based on the faction I am part of? Dude, I would be saying this regardless of what faction I am part of. So instead of accusing me of bias and nitpicking, please actually respond to what I said as being sincere.

[The Serbian Empire]

What is to prevent 1000 Crabs regions/factions that work together as a phlanx?

I called for the banning of duplicate factions to prevent more than one crabs "faction."

They could all be distinctly named but work in a pact. It only makes it more difficult, but not impossible to repeat.

[Penguin Dictators]

What is to prevent 1000 Crabs regions/factions that work together as a phlanx?

I called for the banning of duplicate factions to prevent more than one crabs "faction."

And how would that be enforced if those 1000s of regions/factions had different names and WFE but were still very obviously offshoots of the same dominating faction?

[The Reformed American Republic]

I called for the banning of duplicate factions to prevent more than one crabs "faction."

And how would that be enforced if those 1000s of regions/factions had different names and WFE but were still very obviously offshoots of the same dominating faction?

Then they should be dissolved by site staff if it was obvious.

[Penguin Dictators]

And how would that be enforced if those 1000s of regions/factions had different names and WFE but were still very obviously offshoots of the same dominating faction?

Then they should be dissolved by site staff if it was obvious.

And what if it wasn't?

I could be leading the big faction called Super Colossal Polar Bears, and I could have created a pact with members on Discord, had them create Pretty Platypus Princess, Taco Monsters of Tokyo, King Candy Canes, Buttlovers Anonymous, and Facehugger Appreciation Group. All would have unique WFE pages, but all would be operated by people within Super Colossal Polar Bears, and literally nobody outside of the Discord would know that these were all just dupe factions all serving the main one because everything was set up and discussed off-site.

[The Reformed American Republic]

Then they should be dissolved by site staff if it was obvious.

And what if it wasn't?

I could be leading the big faction called Super Colossal Polar Bears, and I could have created a pact with members on Discord, had them create Pretty Platypus Princess, Taco Monsters of Tokyo, King Candy Canes, Buttlovers Anonymous, and Facehugger Appreciation Group. All would have unique WFE pages, but all would be operated by people within Super Colossal Polar Bears, and literally nobody outside of the Discord would know that these were all just dupe factions all serving the main one because everything was set up and discussed off-site.

Rules cannot prevent every single conspiracy or scenario. That does not mean there aught to be no rules; plus the similar names is why they made duplicates in the first place, so no matter if you look at who is in first place or the fifth, the name is the same, Crabs of the Apocalypse.

[Allokyus]

I totally agree with you my friend. I was on the Catgirl Hivemind and we asked for peace with the Crabs but they cowardly attacked and destroyed my nation and an ally which had already surrendered. In my sincere opinion, mega factions should be not allowed as you said, and things should be manually done. It wasn't fun to be hit by hundreds of bombs despite being already destroyed.

[Yaak]

I totally agree with you my friend. I was on the Catgirl Hivemind and we asked for peace with the Crabs but they cowardly attacked and destroyed my nation and an ally which had already surrendered. In my sincere opinion, mega factions should be not allowed as you said, and things should be manually done. It wasn't fun to be hit by hundreds of bombs despite being already destroyed.

???

[Penguin Dictators]

And what if it wasn't?

I could be leading the big faction called Super Colossal Polar Bears, and I could have created a pact with members on Discord, had them create Pretty Platypus Princess, Taco Monsters of Tokyo, King Candy Canes, Buttlovers Anonymous, and Facehugger Appreciation Group. All would have unique WFE pages, but all would be operated by people within Super Colossal Polar Bears, and literally nobody outside of the Discord would know that these were all just dupe factions all serving the main one because everything was set up and discussed off-site.

Rules cannot prevent every single conspiracy or scenario. That does not mean there aught to be no rules; plus the similar names is why they made duplicates in the first place, so no matter if you look at who is in first place or the fifth, the name is the same, Crabs of the Apocalypse.

But that just proves the point being made. You can't ban duplicate factions because people would just adapt. Right now it's obvious because the names make it so, but later it could be the same story with 1 mega-faction taking all the spots with dupe names that aren't as obvious.

On top of that, what if CoTA was around next year, and someone else unaffiliated with them wanted to make Crabby Patties as a faction, or some other crab related name because it's their favorite sea-critter/regional mascot? That'd be completely unfair to them just because one faction took advantage of making duplicate factions. Would we just ban any faction from having any word in their name that an existing faction has?

[Yaak]

Rules cannot prevent every single conspiracy or scenario. That does not mean there aught to be no rules; plus the similar names is why they made duplicates in the first place, so no matter if you look at who is in first place or the fifth, the name is the same, Crabs of the Apocalypse.

But that just proves the point being made. You can't ban duplicate factions because people would just adapt. Right now it's obvious because the names make it so, but later it could be the same story with 1 mega-faction taking all the spots with dupe names that aren't as obvious.

On top of that, what if CoTA was around next year, and someone else unaffiliated with them wanted to make Crabby Patties as a faction, or some other crab related name because it's their favorite sea-critter/regional mascot? That'd be completely unfair to them just because one faction took advantage of making duplicate factions. Would we just ban any faction from having any word in their name that an existing faction has?

Sniping still go boom.
Seems test have failed.