We Have Been Set Upon By Scoundrels

Politics
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We have been set upon by scoundrels. There are robber barons among us who have erected a monopoly. The nine planets that produce CUO are now completely under the control of a single corporation. Their corp ID is CUOP. On it’s face, this is a monopoly on the supply of CUO. In fact, it will soon be a monopoly on both the cost and availability of shipbuilding. Make no mistake, their real purpose is to control shipbuilding.

The CUOP will try to convince you that they are a good and benevolent cartel. You are going to hear, ‘look how low we’re keeping prices.’ Out of kindness I suppose. More likely, a classic case of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

The CUOP will tell you, ‘we didn’t hurt you’, ‘did it cost you anything?’, ‘this will only effect the biggest players’. Bullshit. Free and open shipbuilding will invigorate and enrich all of us, from the technical manufacturers all the way down to the lowly carbon farmers. The stranglehold that the CUOP cartel has on shipbuilding will enrich a very few and leave all the rest of us scrambling for the scraps that fall from their table.

The resistance to the cartel is represented by the Independent CUO Association. Independent CUO Association The ICUOA has called for a boycott on all LM(Local Market) transactions by any CUOP cartel member. This includes any shipping, buying, or selling contracts on any LM anywhere. By freezing these evil actors out of, particularly the shipping market, we will be able to cripple their operations across the universe. They will quickly find that the excess profits they are collecting from CUO taxes are not sufficient to keep their operations in progress.

These are the robber barons who have us in their chokehold. Refuse their business. Boycott their shipping. Remember their names.

MrTCSmith, Viggie

charlesswimmer, Echo Heavy Industries

CaptainLama, CaptainLama Inc

Name_Dunno, KIWI Corp

Grizzle0104, Gaia Trade Company LTD

Woggie, Woggles

MiguelNeves, WTERSYS

Konvolut, Konvolux

comrade, comrade

Every one of them is a governor on a CUO planet. Every one of them have raised production fee taxes to 9999 in order to make it impossible for anyone outside their cartel to produce CUO. These are their planets. Take a close look at them.

BE-796c, MrTCSmith

FJ-982b, charlesswimmer

HK-811e, CaptainLama

LH-786b, Name_Dunno

VC-406a, Grizzle0104

MO-605c, Woggie

KQ-078c, MiguelNeves

ZK-170b, Konvolut

YO-312e, comrade

You might ask, how can a corporation of 9 people get elected to governorships and control these planets? They have the cooperation and support of GDP(Galactic Development Project), an old corporation with a history of underhanded dealings. Additionally, there are several very big money players providing financial support. Notice on the CUO planets that every WAR space is rented out. Hundreds of warehouse spaces rented for 9999/week.

Nevertheless, they are few. We are many. They can not stand if we all rise up against them. If the ship pilots and traders hold the boycott, they will coliq. If farmers and tradesmen show up on their planets they will be voted out. Please join us in this effort to make the riches of shipbuilding widely available. They can be defeated – if we work together. Rise up. Strike a blow against the robber barons of the cartel.

There are 17 days until the elections end on the CUO planets. Plenty of time for all of us to gather up a base kit or two and pay them a visit. Help your friends and neighbors get ready. No need for a fancy HAB or EXT. All you need is a base to get a voice and a vote. In order to add a little excitement to the festivities, every settler will be provided with a Texas-sized can of Official Whupass. Feel free to open your can and spread it around in the planet chat as soon as you arrive.

Please join us for the holiday festivities. Pack a picnic lunch. Bring the family. A fine time will be had by all.

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2

Please continue to support the COUP and their low pricing of goods they control. They have gone out of their way at a great cost to themselves to ensure that we, the people of PrUn, have a steady and well priced supply of CUO to ensure that shipbuilding goes as smoothly as possible.

McG

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I’m not advocating in favor of what CUOP is doing, but based on my first look of materials needed to build ships on the test server, it doesn’t seem like very much copper is needed at all. There is certainly some copper required, but as a fraction of the total cost it’s going to be < 0.1%. Other necessary but rare materials like Gold and Titanium are probably going to be much more vulnerable to players manipulating the markets, and to be real the costs and supply chains involved in building the necessary components for ships mean only the richest of the rich are going to be able to afford them anyways.

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Visinvictus - You are absolutely correct that, upon first glance, CU does not seem to be a huge percentage of ship building.

However, it is a requirement. It might be 0.1%, but you can’t build 99.9% ships. You have to build 100% ships. You have to build the electronic components that use HCC and BCO, and you have to have CU to make those. Without those, you have no ships.

And if you want to have a cartel controlling access to ships, it is a tiny but essential component like 0.1% CU that you go after. Something that is widely used has too many people using it to pull this off with. But that 0.1%, that’s how you sneakily grab and hold a market.

The message here is clear…if you want in on ship building, you need to help us break this cartel. Otherwise GDP will control shipbuilding.

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Are we forgetting that Techs rely on Copper to even work?
This is a brazen and barbaric attack to control shipbuilding. Simple.

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First of all, I’m not on the list there! Might be a good idea to fix that.

Second, it’s not a monopoly at all. Other players are very much able to produce CUO - it just costs an extra 350 ica to produce it.

It’s much closer to a cartel, as CUOP influences the price of every CUO produced after current orders are finished.

Third, if CUOP was attempting to establish a shipbuilding cartel there are far better ways to do so. Honestly, we’d have the resources to establish the supply lines and gain a monopoly organically through out competing everyone.

You guys are seriously reading a little too much into it.

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My dear friend, your omission was intentional on my part. Although our previously cordial relationship has chilled, I still harbor hopes that you will come to your senses and want to return to being a respected member of the community. That will not happen if you continue on this course to its’ conclusion. Please feel free to abandon these scoundrels at your earliest opportunity.

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…Alea iacta est…

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But if you outproduced you’d not be conforming to your zero sum view of online games. You would not be negatively effecting your opponents.
You’d actually likely positively effect them by overproduction, yes you would benefit more, that’s doubtless, but your perceived opponents would benefit slightly as well. This doesn’t align with how you have suggested you view the game.
Thus, you go for the zero sum control and reduction of output of the one good you felt you’d be able to control with the previously limited information you had.

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There’s a lot of unfounded assumptions in your reply.

I don’t think I’ve ever been a proponent of zero-sum thinking within PrUn.

Once the cartel is beaten, we’ll be in a similar position as if we went down the route of over-production. We will still have all the colonies and the supply chain. The only real difference will be that a lot more people will now have CUO colonies and we’ll all have a much larger production capacity - and we’ll have the cartel scenario ticked off as tested.

In terms of reduction of output, some existing colonies may soon start paying production fees to CUOP. My own CUO colony on LH-786b has yet to pay any production fees. I have 3 EXT, and with the 5 queue slots I still have about 5 days remaining before I will pay any production fees. That is not a reduction in output.

Most players have 1, maybe 2 CUO EXTs. That means they’ll likely have 30-60 days of production orders that won’t pay any fees to CUOP. This is completely ignoring the fact that almost every CUO producer has a substantial stockpile of CUO already.

Regardless of how some people like to paint us, we are not unthinking troglodytes. Do you think we would pin our plans on the ability of 10 players to outnumber the rest of the server? That’s an impossible situation! There is no way for CUOP to hold the cartel beyond 2 months unless the opposition is severely under skilled - which you and I both know is not the case.

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So… Call it off now, and lets all celebrate? Why are you persisting?

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…Qui totum vult totum perdit…

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Its true, greed doesn’t pay. http://read.gov/aesop/026.html

In applying it to CUOP, no part of its design was intended as being remotely profitable. We’ll make profit from our CUO based production chains after CUOP, but the actual operation itself will make no money.

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Well you’ve lost my respect. For the couple CUO it was worth in this game.

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If that is all it takes, then there was never any substance to it.

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I think you can tell by how quiet the PrUn has become as of late that there is some substance to it…

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So, where are you guys that are set against COUP…how is that going…we have a list of the COUP, lets get a list of the Axis powers that are trying to cripple economic freedom…

McG

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Germany, Italy, Japan?

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I mean I get that you’re trying to paint the forces against you as the evil side as hyperbole. But the analogy doesn’t stand up at all:

CUOP indisputably struck first, as did the Axis powers.
CUOP planned this in advance, as Axis did.
CUOP are made up of a clear definable alliance, with some periphery supporters. As were the Axis. The movement against is much more a forced alliance of convenience with a broader aim of simply stopping the attack, as the Allies were.
CUOP believe in aggression serving their definition of a greater good, democracy isn’t relevant. Axis genuinely felt they were fully justified.
CUOP have a clear propaganda strategy (called propaganda by their own members), Axis are in many ways the key innovators of propaganda.
CUOP claim to be along side the new/small companies but are clearly harming them despite their messaging. Axis loved to appeal to the working class in propaganda but sold them out every turn.
CUOP have little care for the wider community, Axis really didn’t like the League of Nations.

Now, from this what lessons can we learn for the future…

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Oh man, if only geopolitics were really that simple.

I think mcgangsta stated that as a form of tongue in cheek humour. You seem to have taken that troll bait in one giant gulp.

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