By Espark on Sun 25 Jun, 2023.

Ai-Mo Times #

June, 2023

“The only literate tribe deserves the best in information and entertainment.”

New Skin pack

On June 21^st, the third Skin Pack was announced. Tribes will include Khondor (Oumaji), Pirate Ragoo (Kickoo), and Anzala (Zebasi )

From the official post:

Oumaji Khondor The ancient sacred order of Khondor Honor Guards has appeared! Hailing from the time of Mubehasi the Undefeated, the Khondor have put on their masks, mounted their Sphelix, and set out to reform the Oumaji out of nomadism and back into a more "civilized age.

Kickoo Ragoo The scourge of the waters, the bane of navies, the serpents of the seas - The Ragoo Pirates! Their many tales tell of the booty they've plundered, towns they've sacked, and ships they've sunk, and now they're ready for more as they expand their operations from the Kickoo Isles to the rest of the Square!

Zebasi Anzala The disciples of Anzala eschewed the scientific lifestyle of their Zebasi siblings and followed the calling of art and unrestrained expression! Now they’re here, with the Square as their canvas, and no one will hinder their creative conquest!

Regarding the new Kickoo skin, the community manager said, “Originally, they were going to get a more "Polynesian" skin, but it was changed to pirates because that was more interesting”

GullYY said, “ YOOOOOO OUMAJI SKIN HAS CATS? BEST SKIN”

Aerial_maggots said, “The Uumaji skin is the only one worth buying lol. The Kickoo one is ok but it lacks detail.The Zebasi just kinda looks weird.”

Klassicalkarma said, “YESS ZEBASI SKIN FINALLY RAHH. The colors. Really gives off that African vibe.”

Lemonn, Yădakk Grand Vizier said, “These skins are just mediocre at best, the ragoo skin doesn't have anything to decorate its body, not even a cape or a belt or anything, the khondor is... fine i guess? still doesn't have anything to grace its front though, and the zeb skin... whatever its called, got some really cool tribal drip to base off of and instead they got some goofy lookin strips.”

Wannymod said, “ I prefer actual content but the skins are a nice filler. Plus they also help financially support the devs, whereas something like for example a naval rework (fingers crossed) doesn't give them any money at all.”

Obes777 said, “I don’t buy the skins since I’m broke, I prefer content, but adding financial support for the amazing devs that made this game is always great, once I’m in a better spot I plan on buying some skins to support midjawn.”

South Penguin Jay wins over $1000 at DreamHack in Sweden

Congrats to South Penguin Jay, aka @Šala Pisalo Je, for winning 12000 SEK (over $1000) in prize money at the Dreamhack Summer in Jönköping, Sweden and representing the Polytopia Discord community!

LAN of DreamHack Summer is a Bring Your Own Computer (or Console) area of the event. Besides Polytopia, there were live, in-person tournaments for Minecraft Bedwars, League of Legends, Rocket League, and StarCraft. There were only four total contestants in the Polytopia Live Game event, so all participants had a good chance to win real money. The competition was only announced through Polytopia publicity three short days before the event so many people who might have come but couldn’t were frustrated at the short notice.

Watch a VOD of the Polytopia tournament awards ceremony of the DreamHack in Sweden. You can also see a live recording of Midjian explaining how to play Polytopia. Midjiwan, aka Felix, wears a Kickoo polytopia head and hands out the checks to the top three winners.

Midjiwan loses to Bloop for a plushy

On May 23^rd, Midjiwan agreed to a deal with Bloop, one of the server international mods over a Vengir plushy

Midjiwan lost and said, “because I lost the game against @Bloop. No one will ever order the plushie now :( ”

Bloop said, “I was surprised when he said ok to my challenge, but a happy kind of surprised.

“I played Yadakk and Midjiwan picked Oumaji. At the start it was pretty even, I missed my first few villages which certainly didn't help. I got a ruin swordsman in the midgame which helped me secure a pretty safe win. Midjiwan was pretty aggressive early on which made it hard for me to expand. i ended up popping a giant on his capital after i captured it”

Espark said, “Oumaji vs Yadakk? He was doomed before the game even started, lol”

Tama said, “ I don't think it was his motivation but I wonder about the marketing effects of this match independent of the fact that [Bloop is] one of the best players. If [Midjiwan had] won it would be a good show, but the fact that he went out and accepted the challenge shows he [is a good sport.]”

Bloop then said, “Yes, Midjiwan is great. In the end I still bought a Vengir plushy since i felt bad.”

You can watch the replay here https://share.polytopia.io/g/05bf093e-d298-4e95-f2d5-08db5abc2bdb

Unit movement explained

By omegaperlague

Do you know how movement works in polytopia?

As in roads, giant pushing, boosting, Polarism, etc

For roads: moving from road to road costs 0.5 movement points. From road-to-tile or tile-to-road it always costs 1 movement. Your unit will always move if they've movement points left. So a rider can move 3 tiles with 2 roads, supposing he isn't stepping on a road (0.5>1.5>2).

A rider has 2 movement.

Since roads half movement points consumption, the max any unit can move is usually 2x their movement. That being 4 tiles for the rider

Now, if your rider is on top of a road, and there's another road ahead, the next tile will consume 0.5 MP, from there, if there aren't any roads left, he'll consume 1MP for every tile he moves. Since he'd have 1.5MP left (2-0.5) he can move 2 more tiles, 1 + the .5.

You can also make him reach 3 tiles if you have 2 roads ahead of him. In this last case the first step is the one that costs 1, then just 2 more

You can also apply this to units moving down from mountains. Here it can't happen Since the first step always costs 1MP

Now here it can, since the rider can move max 3 tiles away from a mountain (first steps costs 1MP)

That's the basics of movement. With knights, keep in mind they have 3 movement points, so they have in theory 6 tiles of max range

Now, let's look at how terrain affects movement.

Now, forests and mountains are considered terminal tiles. They drain ALL of your MP once you step on them without roads

The way you circumvent these is by placing roads that go through the forests.

Okay, I didn't mention it, but there's one more thing that counts as a terminal tile: the Zone of Combat or Zone of Control (ZoC). Any tile besides any unit but cloaks, counts as ZoC.

You can use this to your advantage. How so? Well in many ways, to deny villages, obstruct sieges to make it difficult (or impossible) for your opponent to kick you off his city. Or even to block naval units with your own battleships/land units.

Let's see how that works and how you could implement that in your gameplay (obviously this is just an example).

Now, the swordsman is blocking our rider from moving directly North or Northwest towards the city. So we have to find a way to both walk around him and deny him any way of getting his city back.

Can you figure it out on your own? Check below for an answer, there's more than 1

If you've any doubts just let me know. Polarism works in the same way as roads do but with ice instead. One of the only differences being they can't walk through a village as you would with roads since NEUTRAL VILLAGES COUNT AS ROADS (or connection tiles, but let's call it roads for the sake of continuity).

However, no tiles on an enemy's territories count as roads. Just as normal tiles (without roads). Tiles inside enemy cities don't give any bonuses, at all. Roads placed there will not interact with roads on either your borders or roads in neutral territory.

Here’s an example with a knight.

A knight has 3 movement. That's 1 more than a rider without roads and 2 more with them

With naval it's just either a matter of what you are using. Boats have 2 movement whilst ships and battleships have 3. Naval units never get any bonuses other than a boost from a shaman, though

For whatever its worth: The reason a warrior can move 2 tiles when boosted is because he gets a boost on his MP. But since he isn't standing on roads, he consumes 1 tile per movement. In theory, a boosted warrior has as much range as a rider, that being 4 tiles

Fun fact: A boosted knight pushed by a giant at the start and end, can move up to 10 tiles

Alright, gn everyone

Interview with Kahuna ##

by Robin Hoodrick

Today I am here with a former admin and member of the Polytopia community Kahuna. He is well known to many and has a reputation both positive and negative depending on who you ask. Today we will hear his perspective.

Robin: Glad to have you here today Kahuna, I’ll start with some basic questions.

Kahuna: I'm happy to be here

Robin: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Kahuna: Sure! I go by the name Havmir now a-days, and I like to play Super Smash Bros Ultimate. I am fairly skilled at the game & I even played for the varsity team for my University for a little bit. Right now, I am currently Head of Staff for Team 84 Official, which as been a pleasant experience so far. I mainly help out with their Discord server & sometimes help make content for them.

Robin: So I understand you’re big into esports?

Kahuna: Kinda yes, I used to go to smash tournaments when the venue was open in the town I live in. It unfortunately closed down recently, which is sad.

Robin: Sad to hear, what originally brought you to the Polytopia community?

Kahuna: The google play store suggested the game Polytopia, and when multiplayer was being released, I wanted to play with others. Eventually that led me to join the Discord Server.

Robin: I understand so did you introduce the Polytopia discord to anyone else you know in real life?

Kahuna: Benny they were a Tribe Leader, but yes, we do know each other in real life. I was in fact the person who showed them Polytopia.

Robin: So what led you to want to be a moderator there? Was it just something that happened or was it planned on your part?

Kahuna: I liked hanging around in the community and wished to help it out. I saw Tribe Leader as a role to be able to help out the community more. Back in the old days of the server, Tribe Leaders were the equivalence of mods in other servers and the actual MOD role was an admin role. What happened is that we swapped the old tribe leader program for having those people just be normal mods.

Robin: Got it. I wanna skip ahead a bit since I know most people are probably interested in hearing your side of the story with the falling out with the other admins. Can you explain what that was like to you?

Kahuna: This is a bit complicated, but to put it simply, the whole issue pretty much stemmed from bad communication skills. For me personally, I didn't know the other people didn't like me that much or they were unhappy with me. It was never really communicated to me. I know when talking to one of the admins they cited Zoythrus talking to me during April of some year as an example, but when I showed them what was actually said--it was clear that what they thought was said and what I was told were two different things. That is to say, Zoythrus told me to take a break and come back with some new perspective, but didn't tell me that other people were mad.

Robin: Do you think how they treated you was unfair?

Kahuna:Some yes, some no

A fair chunk of my correspondence afterwards happened through polymail, so I don't know who all said what

Robin: Is there anyone in particular you’d like to address that you felt treated you unfairly?

Kahuna: I'm not here to start drama, so I'll reframe from naming any names Part of my criticism of some of the members were how they talked poorly about me after I left the server. I feel it would be hypocritical to do that here, as it isn't important to do so. With that said however, some of these people I worked with were really bad to me. Like pretty much just gave me a false sense of who they were and then after talking about bad things that happened to me, that it was a good things and should be practiced more often. That is to say, I was really hurt by one of the staff members.This was in DMs, I know exactly who they are, also found out that they were kind of against LGBTQIA+ issues, which I found ironic.

Robin: I’ll move to another topic as you requested not wanting to start any drama. Are there any members in particular of the server you’ve found yourself able to become close with?

Kahuna: I saw Chex in-person a couple of months ago, we talk occasionally, and sometimes we play this game called Gunfire: Reborn.

Robin: Is there anything you regret that you did as an admin and do you wish you still were in that position?

Kahuna: No, I don't wish I still had the position; I was also semi-offered the role of veteran again by a current admin, which I declined. I'm happy here at Team 84 Official. I even got to write my own bio on their website. Like I think that's really cool, I have a bio on an actual website that has its own URL.

As for regrets, I learned a fair bit of lessons from my time with the team, and I carried those over to other places I went to. The biggest thing I would change if I went back is to specifically ask Zoythrus to do team reviews & try to improve communication.

One of the complaints that I got as an admin was that the mods were not included in making the mod handbook--but now that I'm with Team 84 Official, I made sure to include others when making the handbook there. That part of the process, learn from your mistakes and grow as a person

| The logo of Kahuna's group made by Kirbyfighter25 a friend and member of the group

Robin: Is there anything else you would like to say?

Kahuna: I would like to tell my side of the story a bit. So when I retired from the team I left them a resignation letter, which Zoythrus approved of.

Here's a copy of it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bxgGhjYz_vQHYy3fdEP5nZAPy-aZ8jfYXHMe7wtXA4s/edit#heading=h.8x3w8uva7wd6. In it, I offered the team help, should they request it & that offer still stands today. When I was leaving, I was the only one who knew how to do the weekly questions, so I offered to teach the others how to do them & I did. IDK if those are still going on or not. I bring this up, as I'll also offer this to the community: If you want my help at all, feel free to reach out to me. Whether that be directly or through other people. Earlier you asked if I had any regrets as an admin, and the main one was trusting other admins to fix the problems I saw on the server.

I know some people are unhappy with the current affairs on the server, but it's not completely hopeless to see positive change. It just takes work & some knowledge on what to do. I have a background in how the server operates & how discord servers should operate (I read the official discord moderation & server running training). As for other issues, while I do put some blame on the team for how things went down, I also had my own issues as well. That is to say, everyone was to blame for how bad that situation got. While a lot of this was going on, I was kept in the dark about Zoythrus' involvement in talking to the other staff members like I was messaging Zoythus with no responses & I only found out Zoythrus was talking to other people when Lelia told me while talking in a DMs about the situation. That is to say, I never did get the chance to explain my case or myself during this fiasco.

I also want to address the rumor that I got fired. I asked Zoythrus if they wanted me to stay or not while this was going on. They told me to hang on for a bit, and then later told me to retire. A little afterwards, I asked for clarification about if I retired or got fired or not, with me saying that I'm going with "I retired if they didn't respond". I still have not heard anything back yet, but they are more than welcome to update me. If they did fire me, well, then it was a really poor thing to do, as they did ask me to stay when I inquired about leaving. I.E. If they did fire me, they told me to stay just to fire me.

Lastly, if you hear anyone else talk poorly of me, ask them to prove it. As I know some lies have been spread about me. If you want clarifications on any claims, also feel free to reach out to me, I'll try to help you out. That should be it on the top of my head

Robin: Thank you for your time Kahuna

Credits

A big thanks to Artemis for setting up and maintaining the website for the newspaper. Thanks to Robin Hoodrick, OmegaPerlague, and Espark for contributing articles.

If you want to submit a piece to the newspaper—art, news article, opinion piece, puzzle, etc.—let us know in #article-suggestions.

Keep up, Ai-Mo!