Declaration of War

[aeturneus]

Formal Declaration of War

The Smuggler’s Alliance entered into a non-aggression pact with Apolyton Corporation some time in the past. In the past, the universe was a balanced, relatively peaceful place. In the past, we did not consistently hear Apolyton boasting of their superior strength. In the past, Apolyton did not have a level 5 planet called Foor Axice, and all the wealth of that world.

We have entered a new era. Apolyton is now clearly the most powerful presence in the universe. This advantage will undoubtedly be parlayed into an intolerable monopoly of power that will undo the balance that has heretofore preserved peace in the universe. In order to prevent the tyranny of a few over the many, The Smuggler’s Alliance will act now against Apolyton Corporation before it is too late.

For all mankind, we of The Smuggler's Alliance hereby declare war on Apolyton Corporation.


(Signed)
Talon Karrde, C.E.O.
aeturneus, Chief Executive of External Affairs



Evil, even hidden under a blue cloak, will be destroyed.

PS: this was meant to be posted earlier, but a secretary lost it. Apologies for the delay.

[burbel]

Pearl Harbor quotes aside, I still think this was a cheap shot that you took (pre-emptively) against Apolyton.

There have been numerous times when your ship adjacent to the Stardock was not destroyed, when you ran out of turns at Sector 1, etc, yet we did not invalidate the non-agression pact to attack you. One would argue that this is the point of a non-agression treaty.

We have never boasted of our strength, quite the opposite.

We have never violated nor cancelled a non-agression pact, something that you have done multiple times to multiuple players.

And the fact that we had a planet with a citadel did not force you to invade us, to take it for yourself, and, no doubt, to use it against the other players in the game.

I hereby bow before the combined backstabbing and underhanded tactics that have become (sorry Talon) the Smuggler's Alliance trademark.

While I would call for other traders to help us against your monopolistic scheming, I realize that no one in this Universe can hope to match you militarily, and I see no need to ask others to join me in my suffering at your hands; although surely that will come to then soon enough.

[aeturneus]

I will post some information here to let all decide on their own whether or not Apolyton was too overpowered.

1. We had to destroy 7,000 fighters and 250 mines to take just the first sector of their bubble complex. This cost us well above 14,000 fighters and around 35 mine disruptors. So far, this is the only sector of theirs that we have been able to capture. It is not even close to being their best defended. All the sector contained was a planet with a quasar cannon and another planet with a level 2 citadel. I won't disclose population figures because I don't have them right now, but the combined population of these two planets was around 10-15 million.

That was almost all our fighters and cash.

2. The next sector in their bubble contains a level 5 shielded planet called Foor Axice, along with a couple of other very advanced planets. Foor Axice implanted into the game by Dan Magaha. This planet alone gives apolyton a huge advantage, proven by the fact that we can't possibly take over that sector as is with the planet in it. We can only try and prevent apolyton from getting to it and using it maliciously.

3. Apolyton has other bubbles and bases located around the galaxy. We only hope they are not as loaded as this one, because if so not only S>A but the entire galaxy is under threat.

------------------------

In summation, the invasion of just one apolyton sector cost us almost our entire liquid assets. There are many more sectors out there just like this one. I call the rest of the galaxy to be my witness when I say that power of this magnitude cannot be tackled by one corporation alone. S>A must have the support of all truly good traders to make the galaxy safe for peace again. Strike while the door is open - there may never be another opportunity to upset the megalithic corporate entity that is Apolyton.

[burbel]

Well, since Apolyton II and IV have been taken, let me correct some things. First, Apolyton II was a planet with a level 3 citadel, working on level 4. It had around 12,000 colos. Apolyton IV was an oceanic planet with over 15,000 colos, so, all in all, SA has sacked almost 30,000 colos from us. Apolyton IV's q-cannon is almost up, btw.

As for the "numerous other sectors", Aeturneus already knew about them, and that was the reason that they attacked. One of our sectors is not at all well defended; we thought that would go down in the first wave (guess he didn't have enough turns left to take that one).

And, I could be wrong, but a class 5 planet is called "planetary shielding", a purely defensive ability; it is not termed "repress every player and claim control of the galaxy".

When all is said and done, you broke a number of treaties, and executed a pre-meditated strike against a few trusting fellow players, whose only mistakes have been to believe some of their fellow traders when they gave us their word, and trust that non-agression did not mean I will pod you as soon as I possibly can.

[aeturneus]

Well your pm box is full so I can't reply to your private message or this one that way. I will reply to both here.

Foor Axice was a mistake - a planet like that shouldn't be put into a tournament game like this, because of the total randomness of who finds it first and who gets to invade it first. It struck a cold fear into my heart when a fellow player told me it was being shielded. That is the main reason for our attack.

Secondly, this became more of a diplo-game than the tradewars game it was meant to be. That is probably because it is based off of a message board, but also because of the extremely low number of turns allocated to players. Most games have a minimum of 1000 turns, and this is considered standard for tradewars games.

Thirdly, you were cross-podding with solarwind. This seemed to me a way of saying that you were preparing to pod me and talon, or to at least begin aggressive moves against us. I struck pre-emptively in order to prevent that. There wasn't time for talking about pacts when reality was indicating an emminent strike which we weren't prepared for.

Fourthly, I gave you a lot for your signature on that non-agression treaty. I could have podded both of you almost every single day. I didn't, because of the treaty... but after realizing how far ahead you were when terra was emptied of colonists and we only had about 24 million, and you had the alignment to attack us, we felt forced to act. I apologize if you were too trusting, but again, this is not a diplo-game, it is tradewars, and war is part of the name of the game.

Finally, if you really are going to be leaving the game, I will miss you a lot. You were a great player. I think if we rebang with better settings we can still have fun with this, and make it more of a tradewars game than a diplo-game.

[aeturneus]

another thing that forced this kind of conflict into this game.... poor profitability for evils and low colonist regeneration.

Most corporations don't even have enough colonists to upgrade 1 planet to level 4.

[burbel]

Actually, the main reason for taking a pause is that work is heating up; however, I am not about to turn away and waste my Swath registration fee.

And as for the cross-podding; well, Solarwind caught himself somewhere with some of our toll fighters, and couldn't pass. Due to the 1-way warp, he couldnt' retreat.

I was going to pod and kill him (and collect the reward that I posted against him), but, since he was new to the game, I let it go, and freed him. In return he allowed me to pod him, the same thing that you had already done.

I did it in response to your actions, not for any other reason. Why would we have ever invaded or attacked you?

Too bad he got killed as well.

Also, please don't get me wrong, I am sure that there is still a lot of fun to be had left in this game. Please don't re-bang it on my part!

[Solarwind]

Actually, I wouldn't mind the game being rebanged, or at least the turns increased. Being an evil is very hard in a game full of good players, and when i can only make 400k a day, i know something is wrong. We NEED more turns!!!

[Urban Ranger]

What? An evil player making only 400K a day? This is some kind of misinformation, right?

Back to the topic. aeturneus, whether your assertion that the invasion of Apolyton II and IV costed your corp all its assets is true or not we cannot accertain, yet one fact remains. Clearly to UrbanWittlichCo you are an unscrupulous opportunist who will stab anybody without hesistation.

While I agree with you that Foor Axice is a mistake on Dan's part, your mistake at blowing up a starport in your home sector is neither a reason nor an excuse for invading UrbanWittlichCo's home sector. That was clearly a premeditatied plan, as you (plural) conducted multiple invasions against us, and even attacked our ships when there was a chance.

In my view diplomacy is an important factor in the game, just like it is in a large number of multiplayer games.

[MarkG]

i find it hillarious that the man who blames what happened to the game being to much of a "diplo-game" made such an announcement

i find it disgusting that the man talking about peace to end up making a "pre-emptive strike"...

if find it sad, that the really peacefull corporation of Apolyton was attacked in such a manner

my participation in the game ends here.

[Solarwind]

400k is no mistake ranger, day before yesterday, my profits peaked and i made 400k, last game i made 4million at my profit peak. The diffrence between this game and last game, however is when i came in, and when i got booted out, i have played for four days this game, and now i can't get in because i have been "blown up" too many times.

[Wittlich]

Originally posted by Solarwind
...i have played for four days this game, and now i can't get in because i have been "blown up" too many times.

Well actually Solarwind, you have only been "blown up" one time...it must have been one hell of an explosion to totally kick you out of the game!

[Solarwind]

Yeah... but aeturneus suffered no effects from my explosion, so that theory is impossible

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by MarkG
my participation in the game ends here

Chill out Markos.

Look, we at UrbanWittlichCo got knocked around quite a bit too, there is no need to get too personal about this.

Why are you conceding when you are still in a solid position? If I were you, I'd stick around and hit back.

[aeturneus]

Update:

Based on precise quasar cannon calculations, it looks like it will take upwards of 50,000 fighters to actually capture Foor Axice. The fact that it would take us about a month's total revenues to purchase that many figs is an indication of how problematic the insertion of this planet into the game was, and is. By the time one month passes, foor axice will have twice the ore, and will take about 100,000 fighters to capture. It will take five to six months for us to make enough figs to actually capture Foor Axice with its ore production levels. I personally don't want to spend that much time just saving up to take 1 single planet. What a huge advantage! Obviously the settings in this game are skewed extremely towards the defensive side. Something to keep in mind for the next rebang, I think.