Let us have Universal Peace

[aeturneus]

===========Press Release============

Smuggler's Alliance, 12 September 2002

=================================

We have been hearing rumours lately concerning supposed plans of the Smuggler's Alliance to engage in a hostile takeover of Apolyton corporation assets. We unequivocally state that such rumours are absolutely false. The Smuggler's Alliance seeks nothing but peace and security in which to continue our trading operations, and will not countenance the dissemination of contrary rumours.

We hope that this statement will allay any fears about an upcoming war.

Peace and goodwill to all good traders.

-Aeturneus, Chief Executive of External Affairs

[MarkG]

Could i ask why you destroyed 100 of our fighters the other day?

Also, in order to prove your good will, how about agreeing to a non-agression treaty, including fighters?

Speaking of which, werent you the one that rejected our offer of a non-agression treaty?

Actions are better than words

--
MarkG, CEO, Apolyton Corporation

[Urban Ranger]

Peace you say? Hippocrite!

[aeturneus]

I have never rejected a non-agression treaty on behalf of the Smuggler's Alliance. The one you signed with Talon Karrde for the S.A. has never included fighters, but if you wish we would enthusiastically amend it in this way. For those ignorant of the situation, these 100 fighters were in the middle of a wealthy port area, and having them there was an aggressive way of maintaining control over the ports. I don't think your putting them there was very friendly, and I don't think blowing them up was very friendly either, but we can move past this incident if you choose.

Urban Ranger, you need to understand that placing fighters in extremely high numbers immediately next to fedspace is a hazard not only to experienced players, but to all newbies entering the game who could well stumble upon them by accident. Jackofhearts7, for example, was killed by deployed fighters according to the news logs. Weren't those yours? I didn't mean any harm against your corp I only wanted to protect the innocent. Also, we currently do not have a formal non-agression treaty of any kind, except the mutual bond of virtue. Would you be interested in proceeding towards a permanent treaty of said nature?

I hope I can address all your concerns, for they do seem quite real and not simply rumours.

-Aeturneus, Chief Executive of External Affairs.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by aeturneus
I have never rejected a non-agression treaty on behalf of the Smuggler's Alliance.

i'm referring to you personally, not the alliance

For those ignorant of the situation, these 100 fighters were in the middle of a wealthy port area, and having them there was an aggressive way of maintaining control over the ports.

i'm sorry, but there were never any universal rules about aggressive in claiming sector via toll fighters

You had no right to destroy these fighters


We once again show our good faith by proposing a non-agression agreement which includes (any kind of) fighters.

--
MarkG, CEO, Apolyton Corporation

[CapTVK]

Maybe I can offer my services as a facilitator to the parties involved?

[aeturneus]

Well I don't feel like nattering about figs anymore. If you want to litter the galaxy with large contingents of figs, so be it. We won't attack them. We will simply photon them and thus disable them so that I can walk past them without paying ridiculously high tolls.

We need to look at the broader issues of peace in this galaxy. I think it is time to look past military aggression to the real battlefield, the economic battlefield. Colonists are scarce, and populations on terra are declining fast. It looks like we only have enough colonists for a few more days if current colonization rates continue.

If this game is going to be peacefull, we need to fairly divide the remaining colonists. Otherwise, the corporation that takes the most will have a permanent and impossible advantage over the other players in the game, and as we all know, power corrupts...

I hereby vote for absolute disclosure of the total populations of each corporation so that the remaining colonists can be allocated appropriately, and a galactic economic superpower will not emerge. We need a balance of power, and this is the way to balance it.

-aeturneus, Chief Executive of External Affairs, Smuggler's Alliance Inc.

[burbel]

Actually, I would agree that having all folks colonizing during the next days will assure an even distribution.

Also, not to sound impertinent, but traders that spent more time in the beginning trading and amassing wealth (and fighters, I am sure) *should* have a negative aspect to deal with, namely, that others that spent their entirety performing the mind-numbing task of hauling colonists to newer and greater worlds, should have the advantage of greater colonists.

Nothing personal, just trying to keep this game even.

[aeturneus]

Your point is well taken Burbel, but in the current game situation it doesn't stand up. You see, the game isn't even if you have twice as many colonists as us and we have twice as many weapons as you if the weapons have no profit potential. In a normal game, armaments can be used to hunt evil players down, sack their ships and planets, and recover the advantage lost when we were working hard to find trade pairs and you were droning past in your colony ships.

You want to keep the game even, but with many fighters and armaments and no evil players to fight, you could well force S.A. to use these armaments and cash reserves to even out the colonist distribution. We just want to keep the game even

If Apolyton were to slack off on the colonization now it would be a way to keep the game even and to maintain peace in the galaxy.

-aeturneus

[Shadowstrike]

So hypocritical, and scheming..... How much ike the real world...... Just dropping by, don't mind me.

[burbel]

Well, I don't know what to say. However, based on the past experiences that I have had in this game, if I don't capitulate and I continue to take colonists while others do as well, that Apolyton will find itself at war for a second time.

What can we do in this position? If we were agressive, we would face a concerted attack to punish us for that. If we mind our own business and colonize our planets, we face a concerted attack.

I suppose that, if we had spent our time trading and "ruining the ports for other traders", that we would face reprisals for that, as well.

Well, aeturneus, what would you have us do? I know that I personally have quite weak defenses, no money, and a few colonists. What do I need to do to avoid the wrath of the most powerful militant corporation out there?

[aeturneus]

We aren't wrathful, and we sure as heck aren't "militant" ... you all are obviously missing the whole point of my suggestion, which was a peaceful way to maintain a balance of power in the galaxy. To repeat it, I think we should simply negotiate a fair distribution of the remaining colonists based on total corporate populations. If, following a full disclosure, Apolyton is found to be not so very far ahead as I suspect, then this probably isn't even an issue so why not go ahead, and agree to disclose your population figures here? If you agree to do so, I will immediately post the S.A. figues to start things off.

-aeturneus, CEX Smuggler's Alliance

[Wittlich]

Originally posted by aeturneus
We aren't wrathful, and we sure as heck aren't "militant" ... you all are obviously missing the whole point of my suggestion, which was a peaceful way to maintain a balance of power in the galaxy. To repeat it, I think we should simply negotiate a fair distribution of the remaining colonists based on total corporate populations. If, following a full disclosure, Apolyton is found to be not so very far ahead as I suspect, then this probably isn't even an issue so why not go ahead, and agree to disclose your population figures here? If you agree to do so, I will immediately post the S.A. figues to start things off.

-aeturneus, CEX Smuggler's Alliance

So aeturneus, your PEACEFUL and NON-MILITANT way is to get your ISSs and invade our home, seize control of our planets, and destroy all of our "defensive" fighters?!

This move was really low, even though my allignment took a nose dive when I responded to your aggression by attacking your ISS - a fat lot of good THAT did.

You know that Urban Ranger has not been able to log in to TW for the past few days, so you figured since our Corporation was manned at 1/2 staff you would basically come in, "*****-slap" us around, and take what you want? Well, that's very PEACEFUL and NON-MILIARISTIC of you.

[aeturneus]

I don't expect anyone to sympathize with us after our actions today. What we did was driven by pure, machiavellian, necessity, and I won't try to justify it morally. We really needed a citadel, so we took yours. We did what we had to do to keep up with Apolyton and keep this game competitive. I apologize for victimizing you; I hope you can understand that this wasn't personal, but just business.

When non-violent means are proven to be insufficient to the task at hand, good leadership will draw the sword.

-aeturneus, CEX Smuggler's Alliance