Geosim Revival Project -- the Espionage System

G’day, g’day everybody!

The day has finally come for me to announce the direction we’ve been exploring regarding how the espionage/secrecy system should be reformed. At the same time, we have had mixed feedback from players and a ‘not so terrible’ experience as a team, so we have thrown around a few ideas as to how we would shape the secrecy system to accommodate the needs of the players better and lessen the moderator burden.

With the best interests in mind, we’ve developed two probable approaches to reforming secrecy.

Obvious Changes

While the rest has not been put into stone, one thing is certain - diplomacy will be divided into two categories. While this may appear more as a cosmetic change, you cannot believe the confusion that has previously occurred with certain posts and what can and cannot be discoed. With this, we aim not only to make it more straightforward but also take off some of the burden on moderators of going through the master sheet, reading through paragraphs upon paragraphs of detail for it to turn out that it can’t be discoed in the first place. Alas, we move on.

Additionally, with the intent of making the entire process deliver more expedient results we’ve developed two approaches to reforming the system - in its entirety or partially.

The robots have taken over

This is my personal favorite and the one I’ve been lobbying for quite a bit.

The entire process of submitting the operation would remain the same, with the minor adjustment that operations will be divided into low-risk operations (creating a network, contacting opposition figures, propaganda, etc.) and high-risk operations (arming insurgents, coup, revolution, heavy electioneering) - they will be submitted into their different respective forms.

Where the change comes is in the way we would be handling the operations themselves. Low-risk operations will be handled by a script I’ve cooked up, with the results being logged for moderators to look at and overrule, should it come to that, and them being delivered to the claimants nearly instantly. While this change would be quite heavy on the system, it will allow for more buildup to occur and for the process to not be stopped by moderator procrastination.

Now, when it comes to high-risk operations, human moderation will remain in its entirety. Moderators will read, analyze, and determine the best and most realistic outcome for any given operation before it proceeds in accordance with our procedures. Of course, we will take into consideration the previous buildup, precedent, or predetermined conditions prior to publishing or even hashing out a detailed result.

Another approach we are currently discussing is that the entire system remains mostly intact with the only change being made in the format, and conditions that have to be fulfilled for a given operation to take place.

For example, if the Cubans dedicate years to infiltrating Venezuela, it would be realistic for certain government officials to feed sensitive information to Cuba and feel more aligned with the Cuban government than that of Venezuela. Now, if Venezuela became aware of this foreign infiltration they could attempt to subvert these attempts by improving working conditions, purging the state administration, and so on - all of which will have subsequent consequences given the situation.

Conclusion

In short, the new system would aim to have a more active action-consequence relationship where certain actions will be rewarded, and others would be punished - to say so.

Both systems would involve a moderator overview of the entire process, where moderators will remain flexible and will be allowed to bring up the issues with any result regarding secrecy with other moderators (or the community as a whole) to come up with the best approach to the entire issue.

Closing Arguments

Another topic that has become a subject of discussion is the creation of personalized player dashboards so that players may remain updated on the progress given their submitted operation. While this is far from becoming a reality, we are still exploring it as a possibility to gain more player interaction in the entire process; allowing players to become more involved in the moderation of their operation.

To wrap it up, the Geosim modteam is busy at work with the reforms of the systems and we are eager to hear your thoughts - we have always been proud to hear you out and consider your feedback on how certain things are better handled.

We love y’all. Stay safe.

Geosim Revival Project: Mod Update Pt.2 - the Conflict System

Hello everyone!

Here we come with the second mod update post regarding the reforms we seek to incorporate and bring the entire Geosim experience to a much more unique level. Hopefully, this finds you in good health and at a good-ish time.

Firstly, I apologize for the delay, and to thank you for sticking with us.

The Conflict System: the Two-System Solution

Today we will explore what has been discussed as the most likely options for the path on which we will take the conflict system.

The Two-System Solution, as I’ve come to call it, involves an aggressive standardization of the format according to which the conflict posts will be prepared and allow for moderators to give updates in a more timely fashion, which will significantly lower the probability of a frozen conflict appearing due to a lack of moderator update.

While standardization is the first point, the second is still a matter of discussion. Namely, while a “camp” advocates for moderators to resolve the conflict posts at their discretion, the possibility of employing certain tools we have been developing to assist in this process still exists. Such a tool would be our unique Geosim Battle Calculator.

The Battle Calculator is still in development and a subject of discussion within the moderator team and other parties we have invited to discuss. However, at this time we have one possible Calculator - a simplified version I developed. While we don’t foresee the Geosim Battle Calculator completely replacing moderator input, we can see it being utilized to expedite certain results and allow for more timely and ‘accurate’ resolutions to conflicts.

Space’s Battle Calculator

The simplified version of the Battle Calculator takes a lot from the current espionage system, with the way it gives certain bonuses to the attacker or the defender in an engagement.

It consists of granting these bonuses throughout a three-phase model where the moderator can input the following variables: intelligence advantage, numerical advantage, technological advantage, morale advantage, tactical and strategic advantage, as well as a somewhat arbitrary moderator modifier based on the moderator’s opinion and more notably on the post of the claimant.

Positive values mean that the conditions favor the attacker, while negative values favor the defender. As can be seen from the attachments below.

Attachment #1 - A look at the possible modifiers

Attachment #2 - Values for the modifiers

I cannot stress enough that these values have been arbitrarily imputed purely for showcase. Again, this is still subject to discussion concerning how it will be used and implemented - or if it will be implemented as a tool at all - meaning that the Battle Calculator is still in the air.

The New Format

As I previously noted, the process of reforming this system is rather fluid, and new proposals are common, especially during this early period. With that being said, this has been a topic on which we have all agreed on a much greater level.

Rather than having massive blocks of text flood the resolution of a single engagement, we have decided to have certain narrative tangents and other topics of such nature contained within a series of mod posts before or after the resolution is posted. With this, we aim to lessen the load on one single mod in handling a conflict and have greater flexibility when it comes to discussing the consequences of, say China failing to gain a foothold in Taiwan after numerous failures in a hypothetical conflict.

While not restricting ‘fluff’ entirely to mod posts, we will aim for them to take up less of a place in conflict posts.

That would be all at this time, you can all expect an update from Pike regarding his thoughts on the economic system in the coming days, and you’ll hear again from me when we finally discuss the different views regarding the [REDACTED].

Geosim Revival Project - Mod Update pt. 1

Hello everyone!

The time has come for the big announcement - the first mod update.

To more coherently go through the new vision for our community, I've decided to divide the post into multiple parts that will individually explore the future development of distinct features more in-depth.

As this is only the first post, I intend to share the timeline by which development will continue. The speed at which development will proceed is highly dependent on the time available of the team that I've assembled - rest assured, unlike previous attempts, I've chosen to be as relentless as needed so that the progress is continuous, rather than blobs.

I stand by the statement that the community will be updated on everything that happens regarding this project.

With that now out of the way, I declare The Geosim Revival Project initiated.

Table of Contents:

• The team behind GRP
• The Reformist Arc

The team behind GRP

In contrast to previous attempts, I've decided to begin a minor temporary mod team reform that is necessary to coordinate and expedite concentrated efforts in the most efficient direction so that r/Geoism may come alive once more.

The first step in that direction is a new role, Senior Moderator, which I have taken on. As I previously stated, this role is not much different than the ordinary Moderator role but it's different in the sense that it takes on a much greater responsibility in coordinating efforts and ensuring that progress is steady.

Moreover, I want to thank everyone on the mod team who has remained united during the downtime and will continue to work on the reform and revitalization of the community. Special thanks to Pike and Drip for their continuous efforts; I hope to see them continue their collaborative efforts and work so that we may work alongside one another in this effort.

However, the task ahead is not an easy one. That said, I am proud to announce that applications for moderators are once more open! We are seeking people with a vivid imagination and a powerful will to work on this project. You can apply here.

The Moderator Team:

• Space
• Pike
• Drip

The Reformist Arc

With the Geosim Revival Project, we aim to reform much of the existing mechanisms and systems, with a greater accent on player participation. While we mainly remain a Reddit/Geosim community, we will experiment with certain systems more heavily on the Discord server; such a case could be made for political, economic, bilateral, and multilateral blocs that will mainly exist through the subreddit, but much of the 'behind closed doors' will be done through supervised Discord channels.

Beyond that, we aim to reform areas of the conflict system to streamline the conflict resolution process through specific criteria that will make the producing results easier for moderators and far more comprehensive. While not throwing away individual creativity and writing styles, we will attempt to rely on efficiency and quality, rather than unnecessary bloating. I must also stress that this is not set in stone as of yet and is still a matter of discussion, please treat it with a grain of salt until the final mod update regarding this topic is published.

Moreover, another aspect that we wish to take a look at is the expansion system and the greater consequences of political unification. As it stands now, the expansion system allows for a long and grueling process for claimants with little to no return, beyond prestige and a sense of achievement. We seek to create a system where the process is somewhat simplified and claimant contributions in the form of posts are rightly awarded; to this end, we will explore an 'achievement' system that will appropriately contribute towards the final goal of unification - in whatever form the claimant seeks.

Additionally, as previously stated, the espionage system will also be subject to reform with the ultimate goal of making it more impactful on the entire process. With intelligence and reconnaissance having a great effect on modern society, we will aim to create a more rewarding system that will contribute towards the claimant's ultimate goal - be it during peace or wartime.

A short message from the Mods

Starting next week, April 22nd, you will receive regular updates on the progress of the reforms and the updates.

Once more, we want to thank all of you for remaining with us through this turbulent period. We love you all.

Sincerely, the Geosim Mod Team