Possible Security Threat, Requiring further discussion: (self.SenateSPQR)

submitted 3 days ago by Antonius_Marcus

Our Consul, VanillaCupCake, was in process of selling 8,000 bottles of xp to an anonymous buyer.

The details should be for Vanilla to explain.

In a nutshell last night his original agreement was altered, they demanded express delivery for a mild bonus, and if he failed, they'd pay him well below market price for the xp.

He was 45 minutes late, and they denied the agreed upon price and pushed off negotiations on compensation until today. An older sounding American male summoned Vanilla to a skype call and talked to him there. Today, no agreement was made, so Vanilla left with 6k XP.

Earlier last night, before the deadline he delivered 2k of the 8k to one of the drops and was compensated moderately upon that delivery.

That being said, this is troubling to me.

Their refusal to pay the market price - Agreed upon price for the last 6k of xp indicates to me one of two things:

They didn't have the money, and didn't think Vanilla would fulfill their needs, and when he did, they didn't have the money to pay.

They never meant to buy it at market price, and regardless of whether or not they could of afforded the price (800d), they wanted to put Vanilla/Solis in a difficult spot, trying to play hardball with him over the price.

The only other alternative, is that they ended up not needing that much XP, either they overestimated their original needs, or they found a cheaper alternative source of XP. This would be the best case scenario.

Possible motives:

They wanted XP to gear themselves up. Given their sudden hurry, this is likely more out of some imminent conflict; and not a casual preparing of the faction.

They could be trying to gauge the economic capabilities of our faction.

They could be trying to drain the faction of strategic resources, in preparation for an invasion.

Related to the first bullet, and the previous, they are preparing for an invasion, if not us, then somewhere else. This could be a problem.

Likely culprits?

Anyone with 1000 diamonds could make such a purchase. That could be an individual, or a small group. So, while a large purchase, it is impossible to narrow down the possibilities because of that.

Given that they used a strange in game for the transactions, along with the middle-aged male skype encounter implies some of the following, we can sort of narrow it down to assume the following:

They have some resources, cash for alts for this specific purpose, and diamonds.

They have something to cause them to be secretive.

For some reason they didn't want Vanilla's last 6k of xp for 6-800 diamonds.

From this, I would conclude that our suspects have an agenda, and that being said, it narrows down the possibilities further.

Some of the groups that come to mind are:

Carson - doesn't need xp, Solis isn't at the top of their shit list, they are mostly European, they are to proud and arrogant to worry about our capabilities. But our capabilities likely remain a mystery to them; I wouldn't doubt they'd try something like this to gain intel.

Kappi - IN my books, a loose cannon, A mixture of non-banned HCF, ex-bounty hunters, and a few others who definitely have an agenda, they don't need the XP, and we would be closer to an ally of theirs than an enemy.

Bryn - They may need the xp, but they are mostly aligned with us (geopolitically speaking), need for secrecy, and a growing conflict in plus-minus with the communists in New Lenningrad under ZombieLennin.

New Lenningrad - They are facing a growing conflict with Bryn, they likely need gear as they are communists, and on this server they have a reputation for being defenseless. They should have other means to get these resources, and, would have less need for secrecy.

Metropolis - I highly doubt its any group in Metropolis.

Al-Quarrim Brigade - (spelling) I pictured these guys as little american children, or legitimate Muslims, maybe European. Given the skype encounter, I doubt these are the same. But a terrorist group like this would have a need for large amounts of XP, and secrecy.

I cannot think of anymore groups off of the top of my head.

Regardless, A war has been brewing, and this could a final stage in preparation of one party to initiate something. This or any contingency is a possible threat to Solis, whether the waring parties intend to target us or not.

That being said we need to review the faction's standing in preparation for any possible conflict.

My Thoughts on Spying and Espionage (self.SenateSPQR)

submitted 2 hours ago by Antonius_Marcus

This is from my larger post made today, but I see it as a separate topic, and an important one at that. So I'm posting it here...

My thoughts on Spies and Espionage:

In passing I have told many of you, that I wouldn't be surprised if we had already been infiltrated by a spy. I can say I told you so.

Them only posting content from the /r/CivcraftSPQR DOES NOT mean they are not a Senator with access to the other subs. If they were smart, they'd still keep their identity hidden by holding that information in reserve. ( Although I doubt this, as the information seems dated)

Just because he posted a bit of information publicly on /r/Civcraft DOES NOT mean he doesn't have more, or more valuable information in reserve. (Although, unless he was a Senator, there is little else he could have access to)

Just because he posted the information yesterday, does not mean that he was on our subreddit up until the purging. It is probable he was, but it is possible he's already been removed and just had some pulled information lying around that he figured he'd publish.

We will be infiltrated again, we may even not get rid of our spy in the purge. And while we have successes in denying infiltrators the pleasure of being added as citizens to our faction and sub, we will have failures in our system as well.

There is a tradeoff between security, and numbers, between activity, and seclusion. This is a debate that should be had.

There are people out there who want to do us harm. And if given the chance will take nothing off the table on the path to destroy us.

We should have our own spy network up, but we don't. And our information coming in about other factions is restricted to what we hear from others.

We need to have a serious discussion on What direction we want to take the faction in. (self.SenateSPQR)

submitted 6 days ago* by Antonius_Marcus

By discussion I mean discuss.

I have always had a vision for where I wanted the faction to go. Seeing how events have transpired, I can say that my vision seems a whole lot less relevant now.

That being said. I'm curious if any of the new leaders have a vision, or if we're just floating along for the ride of wherever the current takes us.

That being said, I feel like we're just going with the flow, without any real purpose.

[–]poopdish 2 points 6 days ago

as is stands

all citizens of Solis can make as much XP as they want. If they would like they can even take rails to get to far of locations

all citizen have access to buy a villa plot regardless of role or stature in the community.

all citizens have access to our store houses

all citizens have the ability and resources to contribute to group projects, thus boosting their name amongst our ranks.

most active citizens enjoy using the factories TAX free, at cost.

moving forward:

supplying our Aediles with supplies is now one of our highest priorities. We currently need Obsidian and Clay. Speak wioth me or Logic_man for details.

we will have a senate level ledger showing the input and output of the wealth our faction. this will not record private dealings.

we will need to set up a Treasurer position, that is similar to structure of the censor, but will handle faction level financial details.

citizens will need to pay taxes to upkeep repairs, in order to use diamond tier factories (D armor, swords, pickaxes, ore smelter). We do not profit from this tax, it merely keep factories working. We will enforce this via Citadel groups, and our ledger. This will not be forced. If you have a request from a non-tax paying citizen you will need to add an additional 25-50% surcharge for your services, Which you keep and can use for whatever you'd like. Since you pay taxes, you can set these rates.

we will release locations of more diamond veins to help boos the wealth of our citizens. you will have no excuse to be poor any longer. If you wish to not pay taxes after accruing wealth this too is OK, just expect a higher markup from those who do have access when you want then to make you some diamond pickaxes.

you should not expect to be taken seriously as a PVP'er/Military leader/ or pearling officer if you are not geared to do so. This also includes having pearls on hand at all times. If a citizen doesn't pay dues/taxes/tributes who are they to say what they are entitled to from their faction? Being a member of our ruling elite is a matter of pride, how much pride can you have if a noob in iron can easily pearl you for lulz?

we will have invitational contests with prizes, to help gain us notoriety.

we will, when appropriate acquire new cities. How or why we go about this is always up for debate.

[-]Antonius_Marcus 1 point 8 hours ago

My vision for /r/CivcraftSPQR...

This subreddit is not meant to be secret.

This subreddit is closed to be private to prevent trolling, downvote brigadding, and to limit the amount of foreign observation.

This subreddit is designed to be a community within a community. We've succeeded in that. And, I don't want to lose that. In my mind, our community is one of the factors that makes us better than any other faction. If you look at any other subreddit of any other civcraft faction. I believe ours is better all around. If anything, I'd consider making it public, with restricted submitters. But ultimatley, this robs ciitzens of one of the perks of being citizens, it does lose us some level of basic security, and it opens us up to vote brigading, and trolling.

I cannot emphasize enough the community we've created here, and we need to continue to preserve that.

We have many foreign dignitaries on this sub. They should stay. We have Berge, King of Gondolikn, WildWeazle, former leader of the brothers of Beorn in Gondolin, now the organizer of New Covenent, and still a member of Gondolin. We have UnitiveShadow, who has historically been a respected member of Gondolin, not to mention an excellent PVPer. We have Asymoth (/u/Tbever), who was the foreign minister of Brynley, an ally who I'd consider to be closer to us in 1.0 than even Gondnolin. We have Fernum, the Military Minister of Brynley, who was also their faction's defacto leader with their old leader's 8 week absence. We have /u/Eeatz (or however you spell it), who was a cooperative member of Yugoslavia, one of their leaders, just recently added. We had LemonLand, the former Princeps of Arx Republicus, and a possible citizen in 2.0. And we had Itaqi, the President and founder of Orion. And, we were likely to add more in the future. I've ceased considering foreign dignitaries since my time as Consul came to an end.

That subreddit is supposed to be the place of contact for any major communications with foreign nations.

That subreddit is supposed to be a beacon to other leaders and citizens of other nations as a perpetual reminder of how much greater our nation is than others, all around. They can use it to draw influences, this has happened. And in the case of Brynley, we almost retained them as a Vassal coming into 2.0. If we had settled closer to them, they would likely be our vassal.

It is supposed to be a way to keep our faction transparent.

It is supposed to be something that every citizen has a right to be added to. It is a benefit of joining us. And there are few benefits we can grant to joining us. (The only other ones that come to mind are: our neglected tenements, our factories (which are locked down now), our farms (nothing special), our freedoms (still more constraining than most AnCap/Commie societies), and our protections, (underestimated as we fly so low on the radar (now now) ) )

My vision for /r/SenateSPQR

Secretive

Inclusive

The above are a contradiction.

There is a fundamental flaw in us having an inclusive Senate. I.E. We draw a hard line in the sand (Quaestor or even Praetor), to be the point at which you are added to the Senate.

There is nothing stopping a spy from being elected to the rank of Quaestor and entering this subreddit.

I trust everyone here now, but in the future that is likely to change.

Our options:

We may want to consider raising the standards to one of the following possibilities...

Become a Senator after election to Consul

Become a Senator after election to Praetor

Become a Senate After term as Quaestor has ended

We go back to the old system

We assume this subreddit is compromised immediatley form here on out, and cease to post sensitve information. Because, when a spy does eventually infiltrate it, he can look back through the history as far back as he wants. This brings up the recurring problem of exactly where do we store our sensitive information?

Vision for /r/AssemblySPQR

Subreddit is more or less dead right now.

House votes are a lot less important with the new and inclusive Senate. I knew this would happen, but with most establishment folks able to gain a seat in the Senate, the need to do anything to get a vote in the Assembly is essentially not there at all. This makes Houses worthless in their current form.

I've talked briefly with Poopdish about ways to revamp houses, but nothing has been formed into policy yet. And the changes we talked about do not even need a subreddit.

The subreddit was originally designed to be a middle level of security between the main sub and the senate sub. But it essentially has the same security of our new inclusive senate sub, so that function of it was lost, as it essentially has the same clearance as this sub.

We could use this for debating threads.

we could 'retire' the sub, and kick everyone off of it, and use it for secure discussions from amongst this current senate, in the future, regarding classified infomration.

In other words I don't think we have a defined purpose for this sub, and its fallen into disuse, and will likely remain that way until something changes.

Vision for /r/SPQRSenate

This subreddit is still here, and locked down.

for the purpose of not playing favorites, everyone, but the 'founder's were kicked off the subreddit.

This sub has been inactive since the new SenateSPQR , this sub, was established.

This sub remains a place for super secure discussion.

This sub remains a place where the founders can call each other out and chew each other out, out of the spot light of the rest of the faction, for the benefit of the entire faction. But, again, it is inactive since the new Senate was set up.

It remains secret, and forever will be, unless we wanted to go purge a very few old posts off of it. I'm too lazy to do this. So it will remain secret. Even after this faction is long gone This faction will never die.

In the event of a terrible emergency and the need for a secure sub. This would be the sub we'd have to fall back to, possibly.

Vision for /r/CivcraftSolis and /r/CivcraftRoma

Public viewing

Restricted submitters

Advertising

Informational

Unclassified only

Not much else to be said here.

Options going forward

Codify subreddit moderator-ship as a power of 1 or several offices.

Create new subreddits.

Restrict our inclusive Senate. (Requiring a higher class rank (Equites, or Patrician) would help, only help, a little in this regards.

Want access to factories? you need to speak up now. Debate the details here. (self.SenateSPQR)

submitted 16 hours ago* by poopdish

as noted HERE

we should have a 2 tier factory taxation list.

I propose a debate on how to achieve this.

using a simple math proposal first, as a starting point of argument how about a 80%/20% rule

80% of monthly factory repair costs are paid by SF2 group

20% of monthly factory repair costs are paid by SF1 group

COLD HARD FACT: Monthly Expenses are 135 Diamonds a month

regardless of how we divide responsibility or collect income, there is a set in stone hard cost.

we only have 5 volunteers from the previous thread to raise their hands.

We need to do a subreddit and in game recruitment for access to the factories, and thus the tax base.

free math section: 135 Monthly costs

divided by 5 users is 27 diamonds

divided by 10 users is 13.5 diamonds

divided by 15 users is 9 diamonds

divided by 20 users is 6.75 diamonds

another important factors to consider:

our reserves

property income, I need to Sync up ledger with Logic_man's dealings

donations

users have had access to these factories with little sacrifice for the past couple of months.

perhaps we can charge other members of the metro region for access as well, get them on the tax base, VS paying 120-150% of costs per run.

we will need DIAMOND BLOCKS for BEACONS

new beacon mod requires diamond blocks :( Might want to build up a diamond reserve after all

I'd like to extend the deadline 8-23-2013, giving a chance for all to speak up.

After userbase is confirmed, pledges are made, and recorded in the ledger there will be stragglers that just don't do well with deadlines. they will need to pay a penalty for messing up the math and requiring a rebate payments to be made. If you have a better idea please let me know.

this is all up for debate for now, give me you ideas and we will make a quick vote

committed tax payers thus far:

SF2 AKA Diamond level: * poopdish

thorpain

VanillaCupcake

Shadowcon9

Hayshed

SF1 AKA coal level

There Server is Burning around us... (self.SenateSPQR)

submitted 12 hours ago by Antonius_Marcus

http://www.reddit.com/r/Civcraft/comments/1kn887/kappi_attacks_prime_minister_of_commonwealth/

http://www.reddit.com/r/Civcraft/comments/1kn5tu/lio_under_assault_from_minus_minus_leader_pearled/

http://www.reddit.com/r/Civcraft/comments/1kn49r/killed_by_apacheclitz_in_orion_story_in_comments/

and....

me sitting here building in Solis, in peace and quiet

Its nice to have no ties to the current drama

August 18th 2013 Factory Bill (self.SenateSPQR)

submitted 6 hours ago* by poopdish

SO long story short 134 Diamonds, have already been spent on repairs for this month.

Q: why are repairs more expensive from July 2013?

A: good question, I forgot to add the Diamonds sword factory, and I also repaired them all when they still had 15-20% more life in them

Q: Hey poopdish, didn't you say you were going to do this on the 20th or the 22nd?

A: Due to the last round of repairs being out of sync by a day or two, some of our factories were not repaired using as many materials, and they ran our of time (28 days) before the rest.

Q: What about the other factories?

A: I do not charge for highly renewable items (sticks,stones, and baked goods.) This is not a profit making venture for me, just keeping our stuff working.

I will make 3 line items in the ledger soon enough, * one for the handover of fund from Mark_antony to myself * one for July's bill payment to myself, * and August's payment.

link for the breakdown can been seen here