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DispatchMetaGameplay

by The Federated Bailiwicks of Verdant Haven. . 116 reads.

Government Transparency Report #9 - Oct 2020

November 1st, 2020

Dear Forest denizens,

Hello once again from the office of the Forest Keeper! I had not thought to still be occupying this seat come October, much less November, but here I still am and that means we are overdue for another Transparency Report! The last six weeks have been some of the most intense and active of my entire term – quite a surprise given that I wasn't even expecting this "bonus round" to be a thing. I'll speak more to that towards the end of the report, but for now let's hop right in and discuss the big events we've seen since September 15th when the previous report was sent!

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Z-Day 9: Our best results ever!

Let's start right off with the big news from this last weekend – Z-Day 9 came, and we found ourselves in a position of not only being without a countdown to its start (meaning the exact timing came very much as a surprise), but completely without any ability to control our borders. We couldn't quarantine, and we couldn't even kick out attackers. The only weapon we had was our Cure Research, and even that was either glitched or reprogramed in such a way that it was severely hampered compared to the past. Did we give up? Did we despair? Absolutely not. What we did was have the best Z-Day performance in the history of Forest! In fact, it may well have been the most successful Z-Day by any region, ever! Take a look at these numbers:

3.55 Trillion Survivors. 0 Infected.

3rd place for Most Survivors (our best ever performance in this field)
2nd place for Most Survivors + No Infected (tied for our best ever performance here)
1st place for Most Survivors + No Quarantine (global champions, and our first ever "1st place" in a Z-Day category!)

Yes, you're reading that right. Despite having no border controls of any type, we ended the night not just as global champions for No Quarantine, but also with No Infected whatsoever! This despite the fact that in our closing hours, numerous infested nations from around the game rushed to our borders to be cured, including multiple heavily-infested nations arriving in the closing 2-3 minutes of the event. Our cure team and border patrol was absolutely on fire, and numerous malicious actors arrived with intent to infest us, and got slammed with cure missiles so hard they had to flee without firing a shot, or else find themselves completely stripped of zombies within less than a minute of arrival. Most of these trouble makers never bothered trying to come back.

All told, we nearly tripled in size to over 1300 nations, and of these, a whopping 998 chose to participate in the event. It is a testament to the good people of Forest that by the end, only 19 nations were set to something other than "Research Cure" – this kind of teamwork is why we triumphed. It was fantastic to see so many people go above and beyond in order to help out. I simply can't name all the names that are deserving of recognition, lest I forget or miss highly deserving individuals, so I will simply say that it was a brilliant coalition of veteran regular nations, long-time residents who maybe aren't usually so active on the boards, and some scrappy newcomers who came to us for shelter and whole-heartedly joined in to help the cause. Thank you to you all – it was a pleasure. Congratulations, Forest!

The scoreboard is available here:
page=zday_tally

Arborist Kawastyselir has updated our historic records here:

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Z-Day History

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Z-Day

Most Survivors

Most Survivors + No Infected

Most Survivors + No Quarantine

Most Infected

Most Dead

April Fools' 2013

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

N/A

46th
93.42 Billion

72nd
332.56 Billion

Halloween 2013

33rd
373.53 Billion

18th
373.53 Billion

N/A

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

Halloween 2014

28th
529.72 Billion

21st
529.72 Billion

N/A

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

Halloween 2015

23rd
718 Billion

16th
718 Billion

N/A

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

Halloween 2016

9th
1.15 Trillion

7th
1.15 Trillion

N/A

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

Halloween 2017

3rd
3.24 Trillion

3rd
3.24 Trillion

N/A

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

Halloween 2018

5th
2.52 Trillion

Not Ranked

2nd
2.52 Trillion

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

Halloween 2019

4th
2.90 Trillion

2nd
2.90 Trillion

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

Halloween 2020

3rd
3.55 Trillion

2nd
3.55 Trillion

1st
3.55 Trillion

Not Ranked

Not Ranked

November 1, 2020

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Read dispatch

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N-Day 5: An incredible comeback

Z-Day wasn't the only game event in this time period… N-Day 5 hit us as well! This year Canopy expanded again, and the newly-enlarged coalition went by the name "The Potato Alliance" (or "An Alliance of Potatoes" on the faction page). The Potato Alliance, consisting of 26 regions and thousands of nations, got absolutely hammered in the first few hours by HOTA – The Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Many thought it was over, but our commanders never said die, and instead led the alliance to a comeback of epic proportions.

From last places in the early hours we rose, and at the end of the night we stood in second place overall, having even led for a few moments, with a record-setting 346,472 strikes landed on our foes, and a final score of 284,847 – just a few shy of the first place winners, and quite a remarkable turnaround from the -65,000 many people woke up to see that morning. Nearly as sweet is the fact that we built that comeback on the ashes of HOTA, who thought they had knocked us out of the fight. What they found instead is that they themselves would be the target, and our missiles, along with those of several other factions, sent them to the basement where once we were, and together we rose to the top of the pile. As with Z-Day, it really shows that Forest and our allies have the ability to work together and accomplish some amazing things. As we always say – be like the trees that grow, not the leaves that blow - by holding firm in our commitment to our cause and to each other, we can find a way.

The scoreboard is available here:
page=nday_archive5

The updated historic record is here:


N-Day History
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Legend

Regional Faction – Official Faction of the Region of Forest
Ranking – Ranking of the Regional Faction
Score – Score of the Regional Faction
Radiation – Radiation Level of the Regional Faction
Post-Apocalyptic Nations – No. of Nations Surviving (No Radiation or Partial Radiation)

N-Day

Regional Faction

Ranking

Score

Radiation

Post-Apocalyptic Nations

April Fools' 2017

Forest

Not Ranked

-2,809

☢ 6,508

0

International Day
Against Nuclear Tests 2017

Forest

4th

31,447

0

317 (All Nations)

International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons 2018

Canopy

3rd

63,123

0

579 (All Nations)

International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons 2019

Canopy

2nd

64,286

0

1,774 (All Nations)

International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons 2020

An Alliance of Potatoes

2nd

284,847

☢ 61,625

5,672 (95.5%)

International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons 2021

The Potato Alliance

564th

-712,843

☢ 817,924

102 (1.26%)

9/26/2020

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Read dispatch

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We have a new embassy!

Here in Forest we do not tend to open embassies willy-nilly, and have in fact managed to close several of our embassies that existed with long-standing but now defunct regions. Two weeks ago however, we at last were able to bring to vote the embassy proposal with Force that had been in the works since March, and it received a positive ballot from the population! It's easy to lose track of such things in the excitement of multiple major game events, but please, say hello to our new allies, and let's be welcoming hosts for any of their residents who pay us a visit!

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So what's up with the Forest Keeper election and our other regional politics?

This remains a complicated question. The very short answer is "we don't know."

The somewhat more complex answer is "Business as usual for now, with some caveats."

Basically, we are waiting for our Founder to initiate the electoral process. This is not just for the legal reasons of Constitutional process, but because we literally cannot appoint officers or assign them powers without the Founder's intercession. It requires "Executive" authority to take these actions, and the Founder is the only one with that authority. As such, myself and the current Regional Officers are continuing in our duties until such time as the Founder returns to guide us.

There are multiple plans being developed behind the scenes to try and draft modifications to our processes for the future so that this does not happen again. For the same reasons as above, actually bringing these to pass requires the Founder to take action, but if that action can be taken once it should be the only time it ever has to be – thereafter it will much simpler. I think everybody is keenly aware that our current situation is both irregular and undesirable, but for now we can continue to operate in a mostly normal capacity. As both our Z-day and N-day results show – Forest is not the government and its officers, Forest is the people who live here, and dang if you aren't some of the best people I've ever had the pleasure to game with.

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My telegram box is always open!

Fond regards,
Verdant Haven
Forest Keeper

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