The Global Foyer

I added the line "We are equally open to the idea of trading technologies, resources, and much more to further both our empires." That should about sum up our trade intentions.

As for time zones, I do want to suggest in the letter, but first I should make sure this is acceptable... (and that my math is right) Please correct me if my math is wrong.
If we choose 17:00 GMT, that will mean it is 20:00 in Athens, meaning 8:00pm.
That will also mean it is 10:00am where I am, and 19:00 in Norway (or 7:00pm).
If my math is correct, it means no one has to stay up incredibly late or get up incredibly early.

I would like your input on whether you want the time later or earlier, or at this.
Man, time zones can get pretty complicated >_<
 
Sounds perfectly good to me :) I'm kind of a night-person anyways, as you may have noticed by my posts written here at these times of the night (04:07 in the morning here now - soon headed to bed.. :p) - but afternoon/early evening works perfectly for me. Also, most days of the week should work for me, as long as I get some notification a few days in advance. :)
 
Checked the calculations and they are correct. IMO, Time Zones by themselves aren't that bad but I must confess that I hate Daylight Saving Time (DST) both for messing with my internal clock and making calculations especially difficult in autumn and spring. Also in Ahmedhadzi's time (actually GMT-5 plus DST), it would be 13:00 (1 PM).
 
DST can really cause complications, true. But I think it is probably needed too ;)
EDIT: Just read the envoy from the Mavericks. They seem open to talk on the weekend. Unfortunately, I will probably be busy on Saturday at the time needed. So probably Sunday would be the best thing for me. Since he's in NYC, we can work with our current plans for when to do it.
EDIT 2: I'll edit this post yet again later on hopefully to see if I'll be able to do it on Saturday.
EDIT 3: It's looking like Sunday will probably work best.
 
Obsolete said:
Some more info... Despite Ragnar wants to Dow on you with his OP UU on this map, he is having quite some tension problems with Carthage. They started contesting important pieces of land early, and now are fighting culture problems. It is just a matter of time before their conspiring asses break down. If we can make Ragnar double-think on taking you out early, then he will go after Carthage to resolve the tensions there that are not going to ever go away.
Click to expand...
This got me thinking a bit. If the situation between Carthage and Vikings is strained, wouldn't it be a good idea to keep as far away from them as possible? Of course we want a bridge head on the southern peninsula as well, but it might be a good idea to keep expansion at minimum near Vikings. If we don't pose an immediate threat they should be much more likely to respond to any trouble Carhagians would give them. At the same time that would give us an opportunity to concentrate our forces on Amazon side and Mavericks could concetrate theirs on Dutch side (not forgetting the defence of course).

If we have a bit of luck this could result in imbalance in the alliance. Northern allies might start to be concerned on the freedom to expand we would give to their southern partners. Meanwhile with no outside interference tensions between Vikings and Carthagians would be their main concern and hopefully one of these factors would lead to premature collapse of the alliance.
 
I'm really sorry, I've been pretty busy all day today (Saturday).
It's sort of short notice to declare tomorrow will be the live chat, and as I don't know if everyone who is participating will be ready for that, maybe next weekend would work better?
 
:p Maybe we should. If next weekend works for you though, we can try doing a live chat then.
 
I feel really bad about sort of not being able to organize a live chat for this past weekend, so if you want I can do the very least of sending a new PM which discusses a few questions we may have for them.
Any questions or thoughts you want to bring to the Mavericks let me know. I'll be fully willing to gather these in an organized manner and send a letter to them.
 
I have been exchanging PM's with Obsolete and he has been discussing with his team, some progress has been made. I will include you in next PM and will post the correspondance in the forum.
 
Thank you...but I'm here to do PMs for you :D
Just let me know what you want and I can write up letters fairly quickly.
Of course it is ultimately up to you.
 
In my PM's to Obsolete I have been trying to convince them to go CoL, currency CS, while we go machinery, compass, optics.

The reason for CoL first is that so they can run caste and get a great merchant who they can use to bulb CS. This will get us bureocracy alot earlier giving us alot of extra tech.

Originally they wanted to go construction and HBR...now they seem to realize that economic techs first is best at this stage and that crosbows will be enough for now....but they are still not convinced about the merchant bulb.

So if we could send them an official letter with this plan proposed it would be nice.

I realize for them is hard to agree to "burn" a merchant but they must realize that our good is their good as well and with their traits it is the best thing to do right now.
 
Generally I think this letter should feel like we are the same team and we are discussing our future and what we will tech.

As I see it the techs we need first are machinery (we are 6 turns away) and Col for Mavs to run a merchant and to progress towards CS. Then we need currency compass and optics and then Astronomy.

How fast we will get to Astronomy will be critical for our future. If we tech Astronomy 30 turns after the alliance we are in deep trouble (even deeper than now).

So all our focus should be in how we will tech faster as a team.

As I see it it is like this.

We tech machinery (needed to defend and to progress towards optics)
Mavs tech CoL and go caste to make merchant
we tech compass
Mavs tech currency and bulb CS
we tech optics and we tech Astro

If they don't agree with merchant bulb then it should go like this.

we tech machinery
they tech COL
we tech Civil service (since we are faster than them)
they tech currency & compass
we tech optics and Astro



All this I think should be said in the letter I feel...sorry if I did not post this very clearly...
 
"These choices of technology (or more specifically, the order in which they are) will allow us to have a much better rate of research for future technologies. Since we are outnumbered by many foes, it may be wise to attempt to maintain some technological supremacy or at the least equality."

This can be deleted, its fluff.
 
Take this with a tanker load of salt, cause i dont wanna be too abrasive and im pretty crushed right now buuuttt...

Are we writing messages flowery and formal-nice speak-cause it helps us communicate better with our ally-who we can trust completely for all practical purposes-or just cause? :)

Maybe cut this paragraph too

"All of Merlot has been very joyous knowing how productive our relationship is. We all envision, and know that it is possible, that our two empires may act in sync for researching. Working as an united team, instead of two separate nations, will aid us both in overcoming future obstacles (as well as current ones)."

Hope i havnt offended...ok ill shut up now :D
 
I strongly doubt you have made any offense, Cataphract :)

I must voice my disagreement with you on the point of deleting the sentences you describe as fluff. The reason I disagree is because what you describe as fluff and flowery formal-nice speak is also a part of the fun of diplomacy. In these "formal" letters between us and our allies, I personally think spicing up the letters with this kind of friendly language is part fun and part important. Team Merlot is a Monarchy, and even though not everyone on the team is into roleplaying, it is fun to lighten up the atmosphere with some roleplaying hints here and there - and it also gives the other teams an impression that we take the idea of our Monarchy seriously.

However, in private messages and IM chats with separate members or the diplomatic corps of the other teams, I believe it is better to go straight to the point. Note that I'm writing the other teams - recent development and intelligence suggests that the 4-way alliance may not be rock steady, as we indeed suspected it wouldn't be - and this newfound alliance with Team Mavericks may mean we're yet a power to be reckoned with if we play our cards right!

His Majesty may of course disagree with me on this, in which case I will naturally bow to his wisdom! :)
 
It might be because I'm from a straight-to-the-point type of culture where blunt is polite, but to me all the flourishes seem a bit estranging. IMHO, it feels like we either don't have anything important to say or we don't want to reveal everything and we just want to fill the lines so our message seems sufficiently long. Don't get me wrong. Some flourish and fluff is ok, but I believe it should only be included to the message we want to convey and only when there is no risk of misunderstanding. Appending lines that have no actual content, just serve as a distraction. In theory it may risk some of our content not being paid sufficeint attention. However, as I said it might just be a cultural thing but I too feel that some of the flourish could be stripped away and still write fun sufficiently pompous missives. For example you can refer to "His Majesty" and "Court of Merlot" more often or use some big words to describe things and stuff like that. This would give the flavour to the message without adding potentially distracting non-content.

I also would suggest not talking about technological "supremacy", since we all know it is not viable for a while and not what we are actually aiming for. If I'm not mistaken, right now we are mainly trying not to be too much late for some key technologies such as Astronomy.

BTW, what is the planned extent of our alliance with Mavericks? I mean, it's obvious that right now we have to help each other as much as possible, but what is the goal in the long run. Is our alliance just one of convenience and will hold just until the four way one breaks down, or are we planning to stick together until the end? Unless I have missed something important, we still don't have a formal agreement with Mavericks.
 
I think the letter is enough to the point, some "fluff" never hurt anyone and sometimes it might do good.

The thing I would change is the word"unfair" regarding the merchant and use just "if you do not want to use a merchant for bulb".

I would also add a line and ask about their thoughts.


@ Aivo...it is not time to think about an imaginary future where we will have things to divide with Mavs...now is all there is for us and if we make it to the future they are at the other end of the map anyway.
 
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