Conflict of Nations, As Kazakhstan

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

A few years ago, I did a review on the game Call of War. Soon after, I would give it's sister game "Conflict of Nations" a try.  Gameplay is much the same, build units in city, improve cities through buildings, research technology for better infantry, tanks, planes, helicopters, ships, missiles, and other units, etc. Nukes are devastating, but can be countered. But like before, be prepared to spend some gold currency if you want to win, and free players can be hard pressed against "wallet warriors."

 

Of the scenarios, there are several. There's the European war scenario, there's the American theater in which players fight over a fractured North America. There are scenarios in which the action takes place four times more than realtime, and then there's the zombie fights in which all players have a mutual enemy: the infected. And there are global map games in which players can pick any country on the map.

After playing a few games, I gave the global scenario a try. I looked over the available list of nations, and I noticed among them was Kazakhstan. This wasn't an ideal country in the game. There's no access to the ocean. The cities are a bit far apart. For most Americans, it's best known as the home country of the character "Borat." But those know know me recall my sense of humor can sometimes spark some interesting ideas. So I started a game, and after making a few army units made a declaration or war against a small computer-controlled neighbor, Kyrgyzstan.

I also decided to make an announcement in the news feed. Most of the bulletins there are reports of declarations of war and the results of battles. But players can make them as well. In previous games, they were often warnings against other players or trollish remarks. But I made up a press release ...

 

Hello, is Borat, Minister of Information of glorious nation of Kazakhstan. 

Today, our great leader make decision to restore order to unstable neighbor Kyrgyzstan. Our glorious troops are marching into their city to the cheers of local peoples.

 

*image of ragtag-looking soldiers, some with patches on their uniforms and dents in their helmets, making their way into a city, occasionally stopping as the people up front check the map, scratching their heads as the locals ignore or boo them*

 

Great glory to Kazakhstan!

 

I would do the same with Uzbekistan, and message my neighbors saying I wasn't looking to start any fights. Eventually, I began noticing some player-controlled units had stopped moving. I messaged them to make sure they had gone inactive. And once I was sure the player was gone, I would make my move. In these games typically a lot of countries go inactive as players give up after a difficult fight or having gone to bed or work log back in to see much of their land is overrun.

Hello, is Borat, is Minister of information of great nation of Kazakhstan. 

Today, our great leader ordered our glorious forces into (country) due to it's government collapsing after disappearance of leader. No truth to rumor we have anything to do with disappearance. 

Local forces are laying down arms after negotiations.

 

*image of Kazak troops turning around and running away from a well-defended building*

 

Great glory to Kazakhstan!

By this time, I had researched the ability to make tanks.

 

To those who think of challenging our mighty nation, beware! For our brave soldiers are backed up by mighty, state of art tanks!

 

*image of a somewhat antiquated T-55 with rust spots on it's paint job, lumbering forward, the tank tread breaking and it has to stop.*

 

Great glory to Kazakstan!

 

And was producing fighter jets. They could only damage ground targets a little, but they were great for scouting around.

 

Our most glorious army is matched by a most glorious air force. Behold our jets which will rain death from above on our enemies and will defeat any enemy planes!

 

*image of an outdated MiG-21, with a faded paint job, it's underpowered engine sputtering as it makes it's way down a runway, barely clearing the trees at the end*

 

Great glory to Kazakstan!

 

 To my surprise, among the countries going inactive early on, though after the mass resignation a few days in the game was Russia. This was a challenge and an opportunity, and I sent in a number of units to take over as much of the country as I could. 

 

It is with sorrow that we announce collapse of government of Russia. We are moving forces in before neighbors hostile to Russian brothers do so, so we create an autonomous area under our protection. Already there are reports of Russian soldiers joyously joining our cause. 

*image of Kazak troops turning around and running away from a well-defended building with a Russian flag*

 

Great glory to Kazakstan!

 

I managed to get the bulk of Russian territory, most of Siberia and much of European Russia including Moscow. But China got Vladivostok and bordering countries got some Russian cities including Ukraine getting Rostov, denying me a port. But I had other targets of opportunity, and was moving into Afghanistan, then Pakistan.

 

Our most glorious forces are moving south into Afghanistan in order to deal with most dastardly terrorists threatening our glorious nation and many others. We have recently captured video footage from terrorist training camp.

 

*image of a scruffy middle-aged man in Afghan garb and a turban before a small crowd of similarly dressed younger men*

 

"All right students, step number one, put on the vest" *the man takes a vest with it's insides stuffed with dynamite, with a wire attached to a rod with a red button on the top, then puts it on, holding the rod*

 

"Step number two, find a place with a number of infidels. Step number three, press the button."

 

*the man presses the button, followed by a huge explosion that knocks the camera to the ground. When the smoke clears, the crooked camera shows an empty pair of shoes where the man used to be, followed by a turban falling down*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

I do remember I was able to avoid fighting with Turkey and Iran. I don't remember how the fight with India started. It was also about this time I got into an alliance with Japan and Indonesia.  

Today, our most glorious nation signed pact with two most intelligent countries. The signing was followed by a performance by artists of our most glorious culture.

 

*image of a woman in an ethnic dress on stage singing very much off key, whom when finished walks aside as acrobats also in ethnic costume leap and flip over various farm animals to a confused audience of several diplomats*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

Indonesia took Malaysia, and Burma, and we ended up splitting India, with the Kazaks taking the larger share. We eyed China cautiously, but I don't remember any big incident. Lacking a port, my response was to build up my airplanes, helicopters, and easily transportable infantry, as well as factories, recruiting centers, and infrastructure.

 

Our glorious army is backed by a strong population, Here at our recruiting center, we see numbers of eager patriots signing up.

 

*image of several scruffy men lined up at a recruiting center, one looking to the camera*

 

"Actually, we were drafted. We're just here to turn in our papers."

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

 

Our most glorious army and air force has mighty weapons. But mighty weapons need mighty factories. Behold our recently expanded arms factory!

 

*image of a very sooty brick building, with cracks in the older part and the newer part having uneven layers of bricks and an open double door showing some very rusty machinery inside*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

Then the player behind Ukraine attacked. My producing large numbers of planes and helicopters paid off as his few fighters were brushed aside and the attacking units were pummeled. This was followed by a counterattack which took the once-Russian city of Rostov. When cities change hands, infrastructure is usually damaged. But the port was intact. I quickly repaired it, and fast-tracked the building of a cruiser. I now had a navy.

Our most glorious army and most glorious air force is now joined by most glorious navy. Behold our mighty battleship!

 

*image of a Kirov-class cruiser with a worn and rusty paint job, the ship clearly having seen better days*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

The player behind Ukraine quit in the middle of the fight, either because he didn't expect a hard counterattack. Or maybe it was the forces from Romania. I can't remember if they were moving up before or after he quit. But in any event we ended up splinting Ukraine him getting Kiev. 

 

I forget exactly when, but someone sent a few spies at me. When one was caught, I made light of it.

 

Our most glorious nation was the target of most dastardly spy campaign. Here, we have footage of arrested spy confessing to crimes.

 

*image of a man in uniform standing over a harmless-looking young man wearing jeans and a t-shirt sitting on a stool*

 

"I tell you it's all a mistake! I'm just a tourist who got lost and - "

 

"We know you spy. You will confess, or we go third degree."

 

"I don't know anything, I swear!"

 

"Very well." *the official gets a tape player and presses a button*

 

"I loooovvvveee yooouuuu, yoooouuuu loooovvveee mmmmeeeee ...."

 

"WAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll taaaalllllk!! Anything but that!"

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

And I responded by sending a few spies his way. 

 

While our glorious nation can beat any force against us, we can always use intelligence. So we send spies to unfriendly dastardly country. 

*image of a man in a trenchcoat, with noseglasses over his face*

 

"Hello. I am friendly tourist of friendly nation. Not spy from Kazakstan. Where is government building?"

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

The first response to the spying got some chuckles, one player saying, "Hahaha! Bixyl is the soul of this game!"

 

Time went on. The leader of our alliance ended up tossing out Indonesia as Australia wanted to join. I kept close tabs on Indonesia, and asked the others to remain on friendly terms with them. But eventually the player quit, letting me know ahead of time and moving his units away from my territory and toward China and Australia.

 

It is sad that we report the collapse of most glorious government of Indonesia. Our forces our moving in before hostile neighbors do, so we establish autonomous zone.

 

Our glorious soldiers are meeting enthusiastic crowds as they enter cities.

 

*image of angry crowds throwing garbage at army transport trucks*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

From what I recall, a tiff started with China. So I was sending some assistance with planes and some ground forces. Then the Romanian player attacked, and he had help from the USA player who dropped nukes on a few of my cities.

 

We are sad to report nuclear reactor has exploded. Was not nuclear missile attack.

 

*image of a mushroom cloud going up*

 

We soon clean area and rebuild.

 

Great glory to Kazakhstan!

 

I fell back, managing to keep Rostov, but cruise missiles kept targeting the city, damaging the port and halting further ship construction. Thankfully I quickly developed anti-missile technology, and soon had ABM batteries over my best cities. I was able to slowly rebuild my factories, and the rate I was producing units.

Eventually, I got the city of Rostov producing ships again, and was able to push the Romanian player back, taking Kiev, and the rest of Ukraine. Then was going into Romania and the Balkans. My teammates were pressing against China, taking Indochina and going into China itself. I even managed an invasion of the USA's occupied territories in South America. Our point total got higher and higher.

 

Then the game announced it was over. Our faction had won, and I had the highest point total in the game!

 

It was time for one more bulletin.

 

Hello, is Borat, is Minister of Information of most glorious Kazakhstan.

 

Today, it is announced that negotiations have result in peace around world. All major countries order their men stop fighting. The Great War is over! Kazakhstan is strongest of all winning nations with most glorious empire ...

 

This just in. Great Leader announce formation of Kazak Commonwealth, with territories granted self rule, starting with countries who cooperate with Kazakhstan. Great Leader announce elections year from now, will not be running. 

 

Oh is sad. New leader mean new information minister. I Borat be looking for new job.

 

Great glory to Kazakhstan!

 

I would play a few more games of Conflict of Nations. But none would match the fun I had with this game I was prepared to lose as playing a second rate nation with a wacky minister of information, and ended up on the winning team.

 

Good gaming to you!

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Misadventures in Rust Angels: The Base Defense Contest

 

 By Bixyl Shuftan

Anyone remotely famillar with Rust knows there are two kinds of servers. There are the PvE servers in which all is peaceful between players. And then there are the PvP servers, in which there's the potential of combat and raiding between players. Of the later, a few are somewhat relaxed, somewhat, with a majority of the players not fighting or raiding unless provoked. But some can be so vicious, players can expect to be attacked within minutes of entering, let alone after they've gathered enough materials for and having set up a base. While some of my friends have given PvP servers a try, hoping for the more relaxed variety, others have had more then enough of the "PVP kiddies" and are sticking to PvE ones. So when the Angels Rust server was back up, it was soon populated with Nydia and her friends, including myself.

But the trouble with PvE is, what to do to liven things up? Yes, there are the "ninja bears" who appear out of nowhere to eat you, the scientists who shoot at you, and the ever threatening chopper that fires death from above. But without human opponents, things can seem a bit predictable. To spark some excitement, there's been a couple "Wacky Races" in the server. But setting up the track was a lot of work to server moderator Umbra. So for September's challenge, he had a different idea: have the contestants get ready for a raid.


Most folks have built their base so for those who are interested in doing so I have a little competition for those interested.

The contest:

Build a base to house 4 to 8 players.
No items from mods
Base should be built to be defendable.
Base size around 12-20 foundations across, no height restrictions.
Contestants must build their own base, no team builds. (But definitely talk among your team mates and bounce ideas off them).
Required items that must be in base:
Workbench 1,2,3
Research bench
Repair bench
Storage
Smelter
Refinery
Furnace
Campfire/BBQ
Anything else is optional. Be creative with your designs.
How long?
Now till the end of the 24th.  Judging on the 25th by myself and Nydia.

How do I enter?
Pick a spot on the map, screen capture the map location and dm it to me.

Are you in this channel?  Good, you can enter.
Im not whitelisted on your server…
Dm myself or Nydia with your steam ID and we will get you whitelisted

Do I have to gather resources?
Wood stone and metal are provided in three kits that are now live on the server.  Items that require scrap or tech trash you will have to source out.

Judging criteria?
Functionality - Does your base have all the necessary items to be sustainable?
Defendable - Can you fend off a determined raid of well equipped players?
Architectural design - Is there an idea of theme in how you built your base?

 

Foxy, who had experience in PvP servers and defending against raiders, one would think this contest would be a welcome challenge. But be bowed out as there'd been a few complaints about large bases causing lag, "I'd build the Citadel again but I'd get yapped at. So I'll be on the sidelines." But there were two entries. There was Snowy and there was me. Both our initial bases were too small to fit what the contest rules required. So she started a new one nearby. I ended up packing and moving to not too far from where she was, to a spot close to the stone quarry and within fair distance (by vehicle) of the sulfur and high quality metal quarries, as well as some abandoned marts & gas stations and a mining station.

Snowy had no real experience with defending against an attack, so she studied several Youtubes of bases made to be hard to crack. The result was what she called a "Frustrator." It was a two story base with a top wall that sloped outward - which rendered scaling to the top with ladders impossible without wrecking them. The top of the base was a "battledeck" with special slit windows that defenders could fire out of, but were reasonable protected. And the walls were made of high quality metal, making it a tough nut to crack. And if they did, they place was "honeycombed" with garage doors that were more difficult to take down than normal metal doors. And the tool cabinet was cleverly hidden. This would not be an easy base to take down.

My personal experience with defending against being raided has had, mixed results. A lot of redundant doors made a few turn around and leave before getting to anywhere important. One I caught in the act trying to chop down a door with hatchets, and blasted him. However I've found well-planned and equipped raids impossible to stop. Only once was I online and at the base when this happened, and I was poorly prepared, the two invaders armed with explosives blasting their way through and me with just a shotgun and grenades. I tried waiting in ambush, then tried tossing a grenade just as the wall in front of me came down. But somehow instead of being thrown, the grenade fell to my feet. Respawning in my bed, I tried getting them from behind with a pistol. But they saw me coming, and stopped me with a machine gun. There was nothing I could do after that, and they pretty much wrecked the place. Later on after traps were developed, I once logged on to find a hole in the wall and a number of doors knocked down, the last one having a shotgun trap behind it.

Concluding a determined raid couldn't be stopped at the outer wall, instead of going all out to try to, I concentrated on making the place hard to get through once inside. The place was also larger than Snowy's base, with individual bedrooms, the refinery and large furnace inside the building, and numerous stairwells. Only the bottom of the outer wall was metal and high quality metal. the rest was wood, with interior walls made of metal and stone. There were numerous HQM doors, most of which could be where the tool cabinet was hidden. But it was well hidden that would made finding it hard, at least that's what I thought. The main "vault room" where most of the guns and more valuable items were stored was out of the way, and I thought about making my stand there if they did get in for an ambush. And then there were the traps. I placed shotgun traps all over, notably in the stairwells and behind doors in closets. Thankfully Snowy had encouraged me to learn about making an electrical system, so I set up windmills and batteries, and rigged a number of turrets. Maybe Umbra would make a mess going in, but I was determined to make it a slow hard slog.

Snowy and I also ended up cooperating some, trading some resources. I guess we saw it as more than just a competition, but also cooperating against someone who thought he could beat us, "All your base are belong to us." I also started helping her in fights against the Bradley Armored Personnel Carrier, patrolling the launch site. The thing is tough to beat, with a machine gun and a cannon. While it's possible to blow it up with explosive charges, you'll need a rocket launcher and rockets if you want much of a chance. Snowy found the best place to fire at it was from the top of one of the buildings. Beating the thing, you have a chance of finding an M249 light machine gun in the loot crates, one of the best guns in the game and one that can be found only by beating that or the attack helicopter, or things like heavy metal doors, which helped me in honeycombing my base. Snowy found taking it on and blowing it up therapeutic, as well as a team-building exercise. While she occasionally went after it alone, she usually had the help of her friend Nikki. For me, it helped that the launch site was not far from the sulfur quarry. Since the thing ran without my help anyway as long as it had fuel, several times I would go and help her while it churned out the mineral. I also gave her some shotgun traps.

With all of the traps on my base, I was confident at times Umbra would be in for it. Recalling the scene in "Home Alone" when the burglars called the kid's home a "funhouse," I started calling it just that. Snowy thought it more resembled a hotel with it's bedrooms and stairs. One small complication, I found out Nydia would be helping Umbra on the raid. Since Nydia and I are close, I was a little worried a hard fight might upset her. But she assured this wouldn't happen. So we got ready, during which time Snowy had a little accident with her camper that she had to take a picture with her camera to be believed.

Finally the day of the contest approached.


After judging Nydia and I will attempt to raid the base for 30 minutes, while we do that you can see how comically bad we are at this kind of thing and/or get shot.  A lot. (Said base if destroyed will be rebuilt)

The day of the raid was going to be on Sunday night, but it got postponed a few days due to technical issues. I used the time to set up another few turrets after getting a few more TV cameras from military crates and Bradley kills. I also set up some "dragons teeth" around the Funhouse walls to discourage ladders. Finally on Wednesday night after the Cutlass party, Snowy and her friend Nikki got ready at her base while I got ready at mine. Umbra and Nydia decided to go after the "Frustrator" first. Umbra was streaming their actions, which made it a little easier for us. A little as we still couldn't always see what Nydia was up to. 

Flying over in their helicopter, they encountered trouble right away as the base had a Surface to Air Missile launcher, as well as their own personal rocket launchers. Nydia dropped Umbra off, and tried to safely land the copter nearby. But it caught fire, and became unusable after she landed. Umbra tried sneaking over, and throwing grenades into the upper windows. It worked sometimes, but while one was respawning and running back, the other was still firing away. Umbra also got hurt by a shotgun trap and blown up by a mine. At one point, Umbra hopped into Snowy's camper and took off, "The keys were right in there." That might have been a successful troll, but unless there were any weapons or ammo in there, no contribution to the fight.

Finally Umbra and Nydia gave the place a rocket barrage from a distance. The walls took a beating, but being made of High Quality Metal, they held. Snowy's team did have some trouble. Stormy came on late, and a glitch knocked her off the team, causing the shotgun traps to go off on her. Then for some reason the shotgun traps started going off on all of them. It seems after two or three respawns, they no longer saw you as friendly. They ended up having to hole up in the sleeping area. But Umbra and Nydia still couldn't get in.

Finally after a little over an hour, Umbra called a ceasefire. Snowy's base had successfully held off the assault. It was then my turn. Seeing their chopper, I tried firing at it with my rocket launcher a couple times. But the only result was to get their attention. They landed and managed to get to the building, and I tried dropping grenades on them. They missed, but I'm sure it shook them up some. I then tried making quick peeks, and fired with my M249 when I had a target, darting back after a few seconds. Once I wasn't quick enough and got nailed with one of Nydia's rockets. I quickly got back up and resumed, and managed to get her back with the gun. They tried grenades, but only ended up knocking themselves out a couple times.

Eventually night fell, then Umbra and Nydia went back and gave the base a rocket barrage from a distance. I tried looking out with night vision goggles, but I couldn't see them. While trying to see them, another rocket ended those efforts, and trying to get back up, I got hit by my own shotgun trap. And with so many of them around, I could only hole up next to the vault and wait for them if they ever made it there. Their rockets ended up blowing a big hole in the side of the building, taking down not just the outer wooden walls, but sections of stone floor and metal and stone walls. Then then started moving inside. But while they took out a few traps, there were still enough turrets to slow them down, Umbra getting knocked out by them a few times and Nydia once.

Finally after a little more than an hour, Umbra called a ceasefire. While they had gotten in, they had neither found the tool cabinet or main stash of supplies. And progress was slow due to the traps. So he felt this counted as a win for me. It was then he noticed, "Um, is your tool cabinet still up?" In all of the excitement, neither one of us noticed it was gone, presumably from the rocket barrage, the stone walls it was behind not quite enough. But since Umbra had already declared for me, it was too late for him to place one of his own. While I'd gotten some unlucky breaks in the fight, in the end luck was on my side.

So both Snowy and I had won against the raids. Nydia ended up leaving her weapons behind at my base after the raid, and Umbra didn't bother picking up those from when he'd gotten clobbered earlier. But they'd left a big hole behind while Snowy's base was intact. It turned out one wall was close to breaking, but it didn't. So she was the bigger winner in the competition. Nydia and Umbra offered for us to return the favor on their base, but Snowy answered she'd rather take out Bradley another time.

Umbra would later do a post-mortem on the raids. The fight at the Frustrator had more people getting clobbered more often, Umbra getting 5 kills while clobbered three times. Nydia got two kills in while being knocked out three times. Snowy was even, four to four, while Nikki got a kill in while getting knocked out three times. Stormy having gotten in late ended up getting clobbered once by opposing action without getting a kill of her own. Umbra didn't count the deaths by the shotguns. With the Funhouse, there were fewer kills overall, but more friendly fire accidents and several kills by the turrets. Umbra missed one of the two rocket kills by Nydia on me and considered us even. He never got a kill on me, joking that time he was a "deployable dummy," just on the traps which he considered hollow victories. "Those turrets Bix ..." he would later groan, saying they really hurt, musing if the machines ever take over, I'd have a place among the robotic overlords.

So could the lessons here be applied to a base in a PvP base? Maybe. We both knew when the attack was coming and had time to prepare. In PvP servers, this would seldom happen, attacks coming anytime from anywhere and most likely when we were asleep and logged off. There's also that decay was extremely low in the Angel's server. In a normal one, both bases would require materials to maintain every day, mine more overall and Snowy's more of the hard to get high quality metal. Still, some version of the Frustrator would be useful, and would certainly deter a number of raiders who would look for easier targets.

With the competition over, Snow and I would take on Bradley a few more times. Once I would clobber it solo while waiting for her, real-life having interrupted her trip over. But most of our time was getting ready for the wipe by deciding what to store in our backpacks to make setting up again easier. Snowy had gotten more M249 light machine guns than we could take. Umbra told us we couldn't take metal, wood, or stone. Among the things I would take with me were several weapons and stacks of ammo, pipes and tech parts, a stack of cloth, a tier three workbench, and lots of scrap. Snowy and I would say goodbye to our vehicles and bases that served us well.

And if we hold another base-defense competition? Foxy would say he might take part if we have another, time permitting. I've also thought about what worked and what didn't and what I might do differently. But there won't be another for some time at least. As for what Umbra's challenge will be in October, he hasn't told us much. His only clue was that it would involve "precision." That could mean a number of things. In the meantime, there's time to prepare for whatever it is, and time to set ourselves up again after the wipe.

"Good gaming to you,"

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Call of War

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

One of the games I see advertised numerous times online is "Call of War," also known as "Call of War: World War II" or "Call of War: 1942."  The game is a free-to-play browser-based World War Two style strategy game developed by Bytro Labs. The company also made "Supremacy 1914" and "Conflict of Nations: World War III," which play much the same.

After playing it a number of times, my conclusion is it's enjoyable, but be prepared to spend plenty of gold currency if you want to achieve victory in this Pay to Win game.

To play the game, make a new account, and after reading the rules go to "new games" and select a scenario. There are several from "Europe - Clash of Nations" in which 22 people can play to "World at War" in which a whopping 100 players can take part. games will list how many openings remain, so obviously the more who are already taking part the fewer nations that are left to play. In "American Homefront," some of the nations are really states or provinces in this "alternate history scenario." Once in, you pick one of the available nations. All start with a roughly equal number of cities and resources and a small number of units.

 All cities and provinces have build menus, though cities have larger ones. In cities, you can construct buildings, such as barracks, ports, air bases, factories, etc. Barracks allow you to produce infantry units. Ports allow you to make ships. Aircraft factories will allow you to make planes. Tank factories allow you to make tanks. Ordinance factories allow you to manufacture artillery and similar guns. Secret factories will allow you to make rockets, and eventually atomic weapons. In provinces, you can build infrastructure aka roads, that allow units to move faster, air bases that aircraft can fly missions from or stop to refuel on trips, local industry to increase local resources, and a few more.

But in order to make units, you need two things. You'll need to have researched the particular kind of unit, and you'll need the required resources. Provinces produce a small amount of manpower and money, which are needed for all units and all buildings need money. Cities produce much more of them, in addition to producing one of several resources: food, goods, metal, oil, and rare materials. Most units need some of most of these, though some more than others such as infantry needing more food, tanks ships and planes needing metal and oil, artillery needing goods. If you're short on one or more goods or have more of one or more than you need, you can buy and sell goods on the stock market. And once a unit is produced, that isn't the end. Each needs a small amount of manpower and resources to be maintained.

Research will make new units available. At first, you'll only be able to research a few units and the earliest tiers of, such as level one infantry and level one destroyers. But most of these only need a few resources and not much time. As time goes on, more are unlocked. But further ones available cost more units and take more time. You can research two kinds of units at once, and they are in several categories, such as infantry, tanks, naval, etc. Nuclear weapons are not available until late in the game. The highest tier units need blueprints that cannot be researched but found on the map via airdrops. When a new tier of unit is researched, you can upgrade old units, but that takes resources and time.

Each province has different terrain that various units can use to their advantage. Infantry are strongest in the city, and get smaller bonuses in hilly and wooded terrain. Tanks are strongest in open fields. If there are fortifications, defenders in the owner's province get a defensive bonus when attacked.

One new feature is Doctrine. Each of the nations subscribes to one of four doctrines, each with it's advantages and disadvantages. Countries with the Axis doctrine have more hitpoints and can deal more damage, but cost more to make. Pan-Asian countries move faster, can see further away, and get greater terrain bonuses, but have fewer hit points. Allied countries can produce units faster and can research and upgrade faster. Comintern countries can produce and maintain units using less resources, but they deal less damage.

In order to attack another country, there needs to be a declaration of war, either you on it, or it on you. Early in the game, it's unlikely a computer-controlled country will attack you. As the game goes on, there is that chance of it happening. Player-controlled countries can attack you at any time. When a territory is conquered, it delivers a fraction of the resources to the new owner as it did the original. It's morale also goes down to the point a successful rebellion is possible. Raising it will mean keeping a couple units there for a while. Capturing one of a country's core cities will mean a big loss of the production of one of it's resources, in addition to one less place they can raise units. The loss of two or three will mean the country's in serious trouble and defeat is near without intervention.

The score in games is determined by Victory Points. In most games, conquering cities will get you those, with capital cities delivering the most. But it's how many you have at the end of the game that determine who wins, so taking the lead in the middle of the game won't help if you lose it.

Diplomacy is a part of the game. You can message other players and make deals. You're free to honor them, or surprise and backstab. However, they're free to do the same. You can also join a collation of states, or form one of your own and try to attract members.

And then there are different maps. There's an European map in which players can take charge of a major country (or a faction of a broken-up major country). Or you could play on a world map, one with a moderate number of players, or one with a whopping 100 players. More recent maps include American Homefront in which the US and Canada are split apart, and Antarctica.

One interesting detail is the newspaper. There you can read about who's at war with who. Players can also write their own articles. Some write "news" stories describing why such a country was attacked. But gamers being gamers, there can be charges of certain players being cheaters, backstabbers, or "wallet warriors."

So how can such a detailed game be free to play? This is where Premium Accounts and gold come in. You have the option of paying to get a premium account, which means a few more options. And then there's buying gold. So why buy gold? With gold, you can get money and resources on the stock exchange, you can hurry up the construction of a building, hurry up the construction of a unit, hurry up the research of a technology, heal a unit completely, or raise the morale of a province to maximum. While you can get some gold by accomplishing achievements, such as destroying so many of a particular kind of enemy unit, the easiest way you can get it is to spend real-world money to buy it. So this puts the game in the category of "Pay to Win."

Another problem can be the real-time progress of the game. While someone is sleeping, working, or doing anything else, others are free to attack his country and units. So someone could easily go to bed in the middle of a campaign, and wake up to find his country attacked where his units aren't and the enemy already having marched over much territory and cities. This causes some players to walk away out of frustration, or not willing to play a losing campaign as they don't have the time to spend to make it a winning one.

Call of War isn't a bad game. It can be an enjoyable challenge to come up with the right combination of units for a successful military campaign, and if you have the time to spare, even better. But if you don't have a lot of time due to being a full-time worker (or working two jobs), playing other games, or other activities, then you're going to have trouble winning games unless you're a member of a league, and they may get unhappy if they think you're not playing very often. So some gamers are better off with playing "Hearts of Iron" or some other strategy game they can play whenever they have the time.

I rate the game a medium at three stars out of five. While I can't recommend this game, I won't call it not recommended either. For more information, check the wiki here.

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When launching an attack on a country, leave a few units to help cover other parts of your lands to keep from leaving your backside completely exposed. You also might want to invest in infrastructure to speed up the movement of units from one part of your lands to another.

Different units have different strengths and weaknesses in different terrains. Infantry is vulnerable to armor in plains. But is stronger against it in woods, and moreso in cities.

Don't completely neglect artillery, especially when mobile artillery is available. A stack of units can defend itself from air attacks with an anti-aircraft unit or two. But there's no defense against an artillery bombardment, especially a bombardment from multiple artillery units, except to retreat out of range or attack. A computer controlled stack of units when under artillery bombardment will sometimes try to attack it, either splitting or sending everything. So be prepared.

Keep in mind the higher tier of a unit, the longer it takes to produce. So you may want to delay research for a while until you upgrade your barracks, tank factories, shipyards, etc.

If you have a coastline, watch out for the possibility of an invasion by sea. Make a navy when you can, and build battleships when you can (and don't forget to give them escorts). Seaplanes and artillery can help defend against bombardment by ships. Land units are vulnerable when being transported by water, and take time to disembark, where they can be attacked by land units or bombarded by artillery or bombers.

If you're a free player, save your gold for emergencies. If someone attacks you where you're wide open, you can use it to build units and buy resources for them, in a hurry.

A single game can last for many weeks. If a game isn't fun anymore, or if all of a sudden your real life demands a lot more time than you can spare from your game, don't be ashamed to walk away (after messaging any allies of yours). You can always start a new game later.

Bixyl Shuftan

Sansar Update: A New Direction, Torley, And Account Issues

The Newser hasn't written much about Sansar, the "next generation virtual world" since Linden Lab sold it to Wookey in March. For most Second Life users, only a handful such as Draxtor Despres expressed enthusiasm about it. So most reactions of it's sale were along the lines of "good riddance" and "why did it tale so long?" While many of it's personnel stayed with Linden Lab and went back to Second Life, some such as Torley Linden stayed and left the Lab. Torley is still with Sansar as it's Production Director. Another former Linden, Sheri Bryant, also stayed, continuing as it's General Manager.

Under Linden Lab, the original concept of Sansar appeared to be as Second Life's successor. But as it's development went on, the Lab began to realize most of it's residents would be reluctant to do more than casual visits. But it went on and to it's credit stuck with Sansar for some years, but didn't seem to have much of a plan other than "if you build it, they will come," and not many came. Exactly what Linden Lab could have done to make it work, and why it didn't do more has been debated numerous times. Perhaps it was simply beyond the Lab's ability to make Sansar thrive while operating Second Life.

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So how has Sansar been doing under Wookey? According to an article in New World Notes, lately it's been looking less like an open-ended virtual world where users can create their own experiences and more of a "virtual venue platform" for live events.

It's a smart move to target the live music/concert market in the COVID age. And I do like a lot of the functionality they are showing off in the video, especially avatar-to-avatar VR meet-and-greets for artists.

 Going to the website, https://www.sansar.com/ , there's a clear emphasis on live events, right down to the title: "Sansar - A New Live Events Destination." There's nothing on the front page about being able to make your own content or create your own place, just a link to the old atlas of user-generated places on the bottom.

This isn't necessarily a better approach as if a person has time to hang around once the event is over, unlike Second Life where someone with even a small amount of experience knows they can explore around. But it seems Wookey's Sansar has come to the conclusion this is their best course of action to get users, and money.

However, there is one customer service problem that former Newser writer Cyfir informed me about. From his point of view, it's "almost impossible" for Sansar users to erase their accounts, "I requested to be removed back in may out of concerns that the new company would not handle my personal information in the right way. And four months later, I get an email, which just happened to be during my three day vacation, requesting information and proof that I am part of the European Union (Cyfir is in the US) ... and they gave me three days to reply before closing the request."

And as Cyfir wasn't in a position to check his email until after his vacation, the company sent him another email saying "as we have not heard back from you, our support system has automatically marked your ticket as resolved." As Cyfir put it, "So if I still want to close my account, I would have to send another request, wait another four months, and all the while they still have my personal information and my account is still active on a platform I don't want to be on."

 Coming across this thread in the Sansar "Bug Reports" forum, there were others whom found themselves in similar positions, including when the world was owned by Linden Lab. While some tried to assure them it shouldn't be much trouble, the response was that deleting accounts was a lot more difficult than it ought to be, "I've not bothered to repeat the request because every answer has made it clear no one is interested in helping.  Not wanting an account here is not a protest,  its simply a matter or personal privacy-  which in this case is being handled poorly to say the least.  being able to delete an account should be a very basic function of the system.  what reason could there be to not allow it? Maybe to hold onto personal data that the person does not wish them to have- like name and e-mail." It seems those whom have yet to visit Sansar and are considering giving it a look may need to keep this in mind.

So under Wooley, Sansar has found itself a new direction with a few of Linden Lab's talent keeping it going, such as Torley. But it appears not unlike the "Hotel California," those trying to check out may find they can't truly leave.

Source: New World Notes, Modem World  , Ryan Schultz

Bixyl Shuftan

Top Stories of the 2010s: Linden Lab's "Shared Creative Spaces"

 By Bixyl Shuftan

This is the fifth of our series of some of the top stories of the 2010s. For part one, Click Here. For part two, Click Here. For part three, Click Here. For part four, Click Here. 

It's unusual for a business to rely on a single product, though it does happen, especially if that one product is highly successful. But what happens when that one product doesn't bring in the money it once did? There's also that practically every company dislikes having to rely on just one source of revenue as that leaves the business vulnerable. So even if a company starts out by selling one product that does very well at first, it will eventually diversify.

When Linden Lab started out, Second Life was it's one big focus. And after a few years it paid off handsomely as the virtual world was in it's golden age and it's active membership was many tens of thousands with many tens of thousands of sims of virtual land being paid for. But once SL was no longer the darling of the tech media, the people, and money, weren't coming in like they used to. In 2010, Linden Lab would see layoffs, their CEO calling it quits, and Philip Rosedale coming back as interim for several months then leaving again.

Finally in December 2010, Rod Humble would be hired as CEO. Linden Lab's official statement pf his hiring described him as having a “20-year career in the game development industry,” with “work on more than 200 games.” He was noted for his work on “The Sims,” but was also one of the staff for the online game “EverQuest,” which was the most popular MORPG before “World of Warcraft.” While Second Life continued to improve and develop under his watch, by late 2011 he had his eye on Linden Lab having more than just that, “we will be launching some completely different products next year not related to Second Life.”

It started in February 2012 when Linden Lab bought the game studio LittleTextPeople. Then in September, it launched two new products, Creatorverse and Patterns. Creatorverse was an iPad application that got compared to the app "Crayon Physics Deluxe." Patterns was described by critics as a knock-off of Minecraft, though one reviewer called it "dramatically different" in some ways. In January 2013, Linden Lab purchased Blocksworld. This was an iPad game described as "mix of Lego and Minecraft" that was clearly aimed at a younger audience. A few days later, it announced the release of "dio." Someone from the Lab thought the "shared creative space" could be used for personal pages, games, and more. Others who took a close look at it called it "more like a MUCK/MUD/MUSH with pictures than anything else." In February, Linden Lab released Versu, an interactive fiction application. In July, the Lab bought Desura, which was a game distribution service but unlike Steam concentrated on those from smaller "indie" companies and startups.

By now, Linden Lab was using a new slogan. "Your world, your imagination," had already ceased to be used for some time, at least by the Lab. But with the release of Patterns, a new one was being used: "At Linden Lab, we make shared creative spaces." The reaction from the residents was mixed. Some were optimistic these products would eventually make the Lab money, which in turn could be invested to improve Second Life. But others felt they were being "taxed" by way of part of their fees and tier going to pay for things they would never use instead of the money being used to maintain the Grid. By the time Linden Lab acquired Desura, some wondered if the Lab was just throwing random things at the wall and looking for what sticks instead of making an effort to encourage a fanbase to develop for these new products, "it seemed like they were snapping up promising creative gaming projects and hoping that one might magically blossom into the next Minecraft. But they've yet to demonstrate the follow-through that would be necessary to make that happen."

As it turned out, of these new products only Blocksworld would be a clear success. How much the others made, Linden Lab would never provide statistics. Eventually, Rod Humble would leave Linden Lab, and Ebbe Altberg would take his place as CEO in February 2014. Among the first things he did was take down Creatorverse, dio, and Versu later that month. In October, Linden Lab would end it's Patterns game. Next month in November, Linden Lab would sell Desura to Bad Juju Games. Of all the products bought up or made under Rod Humble, only Blocksworld, which was making good money, would remain.

It's unclear if Patterns and Desura would have succeeded had Linden Lab stuck with them, the latter shutting down when Bad Juju went bankrupt in June 2015. But for whatever reason the company leadership didn't believe they were worth the trouble. By this time, the Lab had already started work on it's next-generation virtual world, which would later get the name "Sansar." It may be the Lab had decided to focus on it's new product, hoping it would bring in plenty of money when operational, instead of these two products that weren't making much. In any event, Blocksworld, which is still available on Steam, remains all that's left of Linden Lab's short "Shared Creative Spaces" era.

Sansar would also turn out to be a disappointment, but that is another story.

Bixyl Shuftan

Game Review: Forge of Empires

By Bixyl Shuftan

One game that I've been seeing commercials on television for is "Forge of Empires." This strategy game was developed by Innogames, and can be played on one's browser, on Facebook, or as an app on a tablet or mobile. It was first released in 2012, and is described on Wikipedia as having 10 million players a year later. In the game, the player starts out as a small village in the stone age, and through the players progress, the people grow in size and technology through the eras.

Most of the action occurs on the city screen. Your city has a population, which is calculated through the number and type of residential buildings you have. Coin is collected from these residential buildings, which depending on the building can be from every few minutes to once a day, and the town hall which has more coin once a day. Besides coin,  you need supplies to build things. You get most of these though production buildings, which require a certain number of people. Supply buildings have a choice of six items to produce, from a small item that takes five minutes to a large one that takes twenty-four hours. Your people have a happiness level which goes down the more people there are, and when unhappy you get a penalty to coin and supply production. To make them happy, or even better enthusiastic as that gives you a production bonus, you can build either cultural buildings or decorations. Decorations take less space, but generally give less happiness. Both residential and production buildings have to be connected to the town hall by roads.

At the very beginning, you don't have the ability to do much, build trails, and stone age huts and hunter camps. By going to your technology screen and using Forge points you can research various technologies, which allow you to build military and cultural buildings, better residential and production buildings, decorations and roads, and more. The first few technologies  in the Bronze Age don't cost anything beyond the Forge points. Then they will start to cost a little coin and supplies, and in the Iron Age will start to cost some goods as well. The higher the technology, the more coin, supplies, and goods it will cost. Once you enter a new age, your town hall upgrades, and you get a few new abilities and a few other rewards such as a little coin and supplies. Beyond the Bronze Age is the Iron Age. Then come the three Medieval Ages, Early, High, and Late. Then com Colonial, Industrial, and so on. Eventually, one gets to eras beyond the present day that can only be imagined, the Arctic and Oceanic Future eras.

Military buildings are where your soldiers are trained. They require a certain amount of population available to build. Military units are used to both defend your city from other players, and one of two ways of acquiring areas on the continent map where you make your empire. You can either conquer an area by defeating the local forces in it's parcels, or you can negotiate and trade goods for parcels. Goods are produced by goods buildings, and have settings of four, eight, twenty-four, and forty-eight hours. They are needed to trade for parcels, and beginning in the Iron age to acquire technologies. Goods buildings only produce a few goods, unless you control an area that contains the good, in which case you get a production bonus of that good. Once you control an area, you can send scouts into neighboring ones to explore them. Sectors have a small reward  for taking them over by either peaceful or military means, either a little coin or supplies. Taking over an area grants a larger reward, either a production bonus, expansion, PvP Tower, a larger amount of gold and supplies, or medals.

Quests are a part of the game. These are given by personalities, such as advisers, foreign rulers, and others. The first ones help you learn the game by teaching you how to play. But they also offer rewards, such as coins, supplies, goods, military units, or even diamonds (more on those later). But they also add a sense of plot. Some quests can be skipped by pressing "abort," though they key ones can't be skipped. Some are a little silly, such as challenges and jokes from the jester. Others pit you against an adversary whom will take a number of quests to defeat. As you progress in eras, your advisors' clothing will change to reflect it. Eventually, you gain a close and trusted friend.

Eventually, you're going to run low on room for new buildings. Expansions will enlarge your city limits by a 4x4 area. They can be acquired by gaining territory, technological resources, or gaining enough medals. Over time, expect to make harder choices about how to use the land on your city as your next available expansion is quite some time away.

There are other players in the game. You can either help them by motivation a residential or production building, or by polishing a cultural building or decoration. Or you can attack them. When a player is attacked, the computer handles the defense of any military units the player has chosen for defense (if the player forgot to select, it's an easy win for the attacker). Beating the defense means the player has a choice of plundering a single building that produces coin, supplies, or goods. If someone is friends with you, he can't attack you or vice-versa without dissolving the friendship. Players can also form and invite people into guilds.

Being nice has a couple benefits.  You get a tiny amount of coin, and have a small chance of finding a blueprint. These are used to make Great Buildings. Players can also trade goods. This is desirable as your map will contain on average only two goods bonuses per era and you only have so much room in your city limits. If you need goods of a higher era than you produce, be prepared to trade slightly more of your goods to them, such as 25 marble for 20 iron, or 30 iron for 20 glass. You cannot offer more than twice the level of goods for another good. So eventually it will be desirable to shut down old goods buildings.

Great Buildings can be thought of as world wonders. They provide a combination or two special benefits such as city happiness, goods production, coin production, supply production, or attack and.or defense military bonus. To make a great building, you need at least one of the nine different blueprint pages of it, and the required number of several different goods. Each era has several different Great Buildings. It's possible to construct a great building after the era of it's designation.

Throughout the year, there are special events in which there are special additional quests. These can be holidays, the anniversary of the birthdays of famous people in history, or special events such as the World Cup. Sometimes there's also a minigame that offers points for a chance for a prize. These can be either decorations, coins or supplies, or maybe a special building that offers combinations of benefits not unlike a Great Building, but not as great. For completing special events questline there's usually a reward of some kind, often a special building and a portrait for your profile. Speaking of your profile, every so often the gave grants you an achievement, such as for having so many residential buildings or having produced to many supplies. You can post three of these achievements there.

One nice little minigame is the treasure hunt quest, in which you sent someone to get some treasure. These take a certain amount of time, after which he appears and will wait for your for a certain amount of time. If you pick up the treasure in time, you can send him off for a larger treasure. The first hunt takes just five minutes, a little coin or supplies, and has to be picked up within an hour. Larger ones take more time to complete, but have more rewards such as more gold or supplies, medals, or goods. The last hunt takes eight hours, after which the hunts start over.

One recent feature added is the tavern. Only people you've friended can visit your tavern, and vice-versa. As your friends visit, they fill up your chairs and put a few "tavern silver" coins in your collection plate. You also have a small chance of picking up a little silver and a forge point when visiting a friend's tavern. Taverns are small and simple at first, able to seat only a few people and without decoration. But tavern silver can be used to build and decorate them up and eventually they can become fancier places able to seat many people. Tavern silver can also be used to purchase bonuses for your city in the tavern shop, which can grant a resource boost, a boost to your military, or speed up your building time for a little while. Since the larger the tavern, the more silver is collected, most players concentrate on building up their tavern until it's quite large and fancy.

It will take many months of game play to reach the end of the Colonial Era, and the end of your first map. But as is so often stated, it's not the end but a new beginning. Beyond that are additional maps, and quests across your globe. If you like city and empire building games, especially those with a sense of history, Forge of Empires may be for you.

Bixyl Shuftan