5 Years of Nations II

Hello everybody! I have a very interesting announcement to make, sort of a third view on our beloved minigame, since I have experienced so much over the last years. We have reached a very late stage into Nations II, and I would like to share some achievements we all did.

Our community has evolved into sort of an ''end-game'', where nations have evolved so much, that they are able to create many, many different things at a very fast pace. This is both a good and bad, since we can help our towns survive much easier, but we can also no longer discover new things, new ideas that are better than anyone else's. On short, there is no more place for inventing. We have the latest ''meta'', but that cost us greatly, since no one is willing to not use meta anymore, in all areas: unpeaceful towns, navy and more.

Through dedicated developers, we are able to create art, music, we are able to create industries and much more. Sadly, after 5 years of Nations II, many, if not all, have lost interest in art and music, and the industry is only used in war. Slimefun should be ''fun'', yet no one uses all the machinery available to us. Food? It is all war-related food, the other is only for flavor, nothing else from the majority's point of view. Magic? I haven't seen anyone use it in a long time.

Sieges are moments of cohesion between players. However, these days, even the sieges look plain and boring. Most ''forts'' have identical features. If just 2 years ago we had different kind of forts, today you will see the same fort on 4 continents, or a similar variant, differing with just the flag. More, today, banners are captured by players which log online only to do that, and the other way as well, some players only log online to fight. Even more unfortunately, each siege could be generally considered the same if it wasn't for the different types of terrain around them: mountains or flat land.

Even the people fighting are the same. The current conflict, that has been officially going since the death of the Great Nordic Empire and practically since 2021 for some, has had the same cycle for 2 years at least: every 1-2 weeks, nations siege their great enemy, mostly whoever they share their continent with. If peace would be achieved, it wouldn't last, since some people simply do not wish peace. And it is the ego of people that won't let them give up: ''Why should I make peace with that guy? He is horrible, get out, I am attacking them''. This mentality led to this conflict and this mentality will not let it die. You could argue any nation has this: from west to east, the Telurian Federation, the Imperial North, the Imperium Romanum, the Thracian Dominion, the Siberium Dominion, the Russo-Japanese Empire, the Oceanic Empire and the Australis Syndicate. Maybe more, but these nations are the center of attention in the world.

One could say that Nations II needs to end, and I am one of them. However, I believe this conflict has blinded us. I have been in both the Coalition and the Alliance, and I must admit that both have good people in them. I had great times with the people of the Imperial North, of the Imperium Romanum, of the Siberium Dominion, and after, I also had great times with the people of the Thracian Dominion, of the Oceanic Empire, of the Russo-Japanese Empire. We believe that we are right, but we are just competitive. If you get to meet, to talk, to help and be friends with others, you will understand that they are good people and that they would help you.

Nations II is not the same, and the players which hoped that, these days, they can have fun with others outside of war are gone. In my opinion, Nations II has become nothing more than a Factions server, with competitiveness turned into hartred, toxicism, amplified by the modern tactics of making another's life miserable. This could be debated over many hours, over many weeks and months and years, but it would be in vain. However, what we all should agree on: Nations II was the friends we made along. Even if all seems bad and hopeless, we must remember that at least we tried, and some succeeded in their plans. We are all winners, no matter what we did or not.

Happy 5 years, Nations! -for 20 March

I hope I included everything, if I did not, remind me for another post for another day... if there will be.

That was a rly good piece. I agree that the meta has gone too far. Either new content needs to be added for players to experiment with like other plugins or new movecraft, or we need a whole reset of nations. If there was a reset though a big problem would be that all the same nations would just reform in a new world, and they’d still know the old meta. So either way the server needs new content and to get rid of some old things. Also when u were listing major rivalry’s u forgot abt vanaco and mke + quin.