Aquazine 2020 | 32 - Tama Lizandra

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AQUAZINE 2020 | 32 Free weekly magazine by the Aquarion tribe. Contents Polytopia News 3 – Polytopia out on Steam What to expect? 3 – Zoythrus’ livestream Crab bedtime story 4 – r/Polytopia changes Big activity, new mod 4 – 25000 members on Discord Time for a meme contest 4 – Karaoke For social distancing 5 – Weekly fanart gallery Handpicked fanart selection Fun pages 11 – Adventures in Polytopia 6 – Vexil Wonders D&D modification Keeping the Union Jack 8 – Astrology Are stars resources? 9 – Weekly fact file Siamese fighting fish 10 – Game recommendation Arknights 11 – Polytopia Urban Legends Ever heard of Polipoli? 12 – Impressionism Nice looking art 13 – XxBoysCringe69420xX Meme tribe Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 2 Tamarissz Steam release The most anticipated moment of the past year and a half of the Polytopia community is finally here. The game is released on Steam, with all the new Moonrise features. There is a little confusion about titles here, because the name Moonrise is being associated with the PC version, although it’s just the name of the special feature pack this version includes. These features will come to mobile version soon, and then the mobile version will be called Moonrise too. There will still not be crossplay between PC and mobile after that update, but hopefully eventually. The yearly Tribe Duels tournament on the Discord server is also delayed until Moonrise arrives to mobile. In the first week, the game is on sale with 33% off, and there is also opportunity to buy it in bundle form with all 3 special tribe DLC included. Many people bought it this first week and there was an expected increase in activity in the community. As for the future, the nearest goals are releasing Moonrise on mobile, adding the Diplomacy tech and a new tribe. Aquarion rework is a bit lower on the priority list. Livestream on Steam page It is only important to include this event because there were Steam keys to get. Zoythrus went live on the webshop page of the game as a developer. He eventually posted a gift code in the chat for viewers to get, at least 2 of them. He played as Aquarion and gave up at first, but was more successful the second time, proving that Defender spam is a viable tactic againt bots. The fact that Crabs tell the bedtime stories was brought up and when asked to tell a bedtime story, he said: "Once upon a time, there was a crab. And it ate all the Bardur, saving the Aquarion. The end." Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 3 Tamarissz Polytopia subreddit news Many users were unhappy about the general quality of posts on the subreddit and lacking mods, so after longtime lurker u/MidnightDragon voiced their unsatisfaction, mods decided to finally sit down and think of ways to make things better. An obvious solution was to appoint a new moderator, but picking someone proved to be harder than one would think, as no one really stood out from the crowd. In the middle of sorting through comments and statistics, another longtime lurker, u/RedSmith305 messaged Zoythrus that he would like to apply for mod position, which after considering his experience, was accepted. It was expected that when Polytopia is out on Steam, a sudden large influx of posts will occur, about people posting their experience, bugs they might have found, and general hype. This turned out to be true, so the subreddit got momentum again. 25000 on Discord In the old days, the server used to celebrate the milestone at every thousand members with a gameplay challenge with rewards, but that stopped after the 20k mark, because 21k felt less important and also it happened at the same time with other events. But 25k proved to be important enough, so it is celebrated with a week-long Meme contest. The third meme contest in the history of the server. An insane amount of submissions came in quickly and by the deadline there were 117. Many of them are not memes, reposts or low effort, but were not disqualified. The winners will be decided by usual community vote, the winners will recieve a Steam key, and also limited edition Polytopia stickers. Karaoke Espark hosted another karaoke session on Saturday, which was very successful. It started at a slightly earlier time, so that people of more timezones could participate. In the end, 15 individuals performed, out of which at least 4 were European. There were an average of 15 listeners in the voice chat at all times, but at the peak, there were more than 25. Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 4 Tamarissz Weekly fanart gallery „Ai-Mo 3D Battle render!” by u/TheArrowlight „Polaris superior to Aquarion” by u/Superficial-Intel „One hour into the moonrise update party” by u/Random-Person-45 „A'tuin holding the square” by u/rastrapies „Polytopia Kickoo theme Animusic” by Jeremy Weed Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 5 Tamarissz Vexil Wonders How to get rid of a Union Jack A Union Jack is a contagious flag sickness that comes from one provider, the flag of the United Kingdom, which is just one big Union Jack. Every flag that is under the rule of the UK gets infected with the sickness. In most cases, it disappears immediately after losing dependence on the UK, as in, the countries change their flag to something that doesn’t have a Union Jack in it the same year of their independence. But in 4 cases, they are still keeping it. They are all island nations in Oceania. Let’s look at them and what each one thinks about changing it to one that has no Union Jack. Australia Southern Cross constellation and the Commonwealth star are to be found on this flag. There have only been mild but persistent debates about replacing the flag, saying the current symbols aren’t representing Australia very well. However, there are no major ideas about what the replacement should look like. Another widely used flag in Australia is the Australian Aboriginal flag, but it represents a minority group in the country, so it wouldn’t be appropriate as national flag. New Zealand Often mistaken with the Australia flag because it’s only difference is the missing Commonwealth star and the Southern Cross having stars with red insides, so they have two reasons to change the flag. The debate is hardest in this country out of the 4, and there are multiple ideas about what to change it to. There has been a public referendum about flag change in 2016, but it was poorly organised and not really thought through, so even though the majority of the people supported the flag change, the old one remained. First, there was a contest where anyone could submit flag designs for New Zealand. Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 6 Source: Wikipedia New Zealand (cont.) From the 10292 submissions, a panel of experts selected the 40 best ones („Long list”) and then chose the 5 most popular ones („Short list”). In the first referendum, the public was asked „If the New Zealand flag changes, which one would you prefer?” The winning candidate competed against the current New Zealand flag in the second referendum. The current flag won by 53% of the votes, but the referendums were largely criticised by both supporters and refusers of the flag change, the timing, the priorities, the costs, the biased choice of the Short list, since 3 of the 5 options were very similar and originally, they didn’t include the Red Peak flag, which was very popular. It is very likely that if the questions were asked in a different way, such as „Would you like the New Zealand flag to be changed” and „Which one should be the new flag”, the New Zealand flag would have no Union Jack today. No plans for another referndum. Fiji It has a light blue background and the Arms of Fiji on it, which distinguish it from other flags and gives some relatability. There were many attempts at changing it but all were stopped by various groups. And finally in 2016, the popularity of the flag was boosted when the island nation won its first olympics gold medal in rugby. Now the world knew Fiji exists and they didn’t want to ruin it. There are multiple options what to change it to if they decide to change their mind in the future, though. Tuvalu The name of Tuvalu means „Eight together”. However, there are 9 stars on the flag, symbolising the 9 inhabited islands. They tried removing one of the stars, but it just looked bad (poor Vaitapu atoll). Between January 1996 and April 1997, the flag was changed to not include the Union Jack. This design was disliked by the people however, because they felt it was a move towards replacing the monarchy with a republic, so the old flag was restored. Now they are focusing on inhabiting a 9th island instead of changing the flag to match the country. Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 7 T Shadow Astrology Yădakk Zebasi You have to build a new road, it You’ll get a maximum level will help you later. windmill. Ai-Mo Oumaji You need to be more peaceful. Your army of riders will defeat a powerful enemy tribe. Imperius Hoodrick You’ll slip on a puddle of water and your helmet will fall off! You’ll lose an arrow and never find it again. Xin-xi Quetzali There is a ruin behind that mountain, luckily you can Your shield will save your life. climb it. Vengir Luxidoor Your economy will go downhill You’ll get a giant at Turn 2. after training more swordmen. Kickoo Bardur Your next spawn will have One of the horns on your many fish. helmet will get broken, buy a new one! Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 8 We take no responsibility if any of the predictions turn out to be untrue. This is for entertainment purposes only. gamesRme123 Siamese fighting fish The siamese fighting fish, also known as the betta fish, is a small fish that is commonly kept in aquariums all over the world. They are members of the cichlid family and are highly territorial. They are native to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Thailand declared it as their Because of their heritage, the national aquatic animal. siamese fighting fish are very territorial. When multiple betta of the same gender are contained within a tank, they generally fight to the death. This usually results in the death of both fish from bleeding. It is not recommended for male and female bettas to be kept together unless for breeding purposes. Some people breed these fish to fight. They are selected based on behaviour and resilience. They are pressed into small tanks and forced to fight. The first to back off is declared the loser. Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 9 Lost Comet Arknights Arknights is a mobile game developped by Hypergryph and released in April 2019 in China and published in January 2020 by Yostar for the rest of the world. Arknights is a tower defense game in which your ‘towers’ are characters divided between 8 different classes. The game involves additional mechanics such as manual skill activations, making gameplay more interactive than the typical tower defense game. The game has gacha/lootbox mechanics, however the rates are pretty good and high-rarity characters are by no means necessary for the player to progress, as beating levels relies more on strategy/team composition than raw stats. The aesthetic of Arknights has a blend of modern and fantasy, with the setting being contemporary but with the presence of magic. The characters themselves are based off various animals and mythical creatures. Most importantly, Arknights has godly music. The in-game battle soundtracks create a pumped up ambience while also maintaining variety. The music ranges from classical/orchestral to electronica and more rhythmic styles. There are also external songs such as character theme songs that are even more varied in style. Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 10 Otlaxuv Polytopia Urban Legends Welcome to the biggest little capital in the world and center of the Xin-xi. This city may not be very big but it does have a lot of tunnels underneath where they store various things and it also allows the Xin-xi to use rather creative tactics in and under the city. Polipoli has been invaded many times but has been liberated every time by the Xipolistran which is the oldest and the most advanced resistance force on the square. The third emperor of Xin-xi nicknamed the city "The city of uprisings" when the city was liberated for the fourth time during his rule. Tamarissz Adventures in Polytopia Ever wanted to play D&D in the Polytopia world but didn’t know how all those mechanisms would work in this new setting? Luckily for you, someone already made a complete Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition ruleset specifically for Polytopia. This someone is called „K.” and is unfortunately not active in the community anymore. The ruleset is available as a .pdf in the Adventures in Polytopia discord server, where campaigns to join are also organised regularly. Discord server advertisement Adventures in Polytopia Top 1 Polytopia themed D&D server with regular campaigns. Home of AiP development and testing. One shots happen too. Midjiwan used to be on it... Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 11 Tamarissz Impressionism Impressionism is my favourite art movement from the 19th century, because it just looks amazing. It all started when french painter Édouard Manet made the paintings „Olympia” and „The Lucheon on the Grass” (which I can’t show here because explicit content). The artworks were generally frowned upon by the critiques of the time, but a few other artists saw potential in it and started embracing it their own way. The goal of this movement is to capture the impressions of a moment, with short quick and thick strokes of paint. The name comes from one of Claude Monet’s painting, „Impression, Sunrise”. This is not an art class so I won’t really tell any detailed story, just look at these pictures. Claude Monet: Saint-Georges Claude Monet: Claude Monet: Landscape majeur au crépuscule Impression, Sunrise near Monte Carlo My favourite artist is belarussian neoimpressionist Leonid Afremov. Aquazine 2020 | 32 | Page 12 Tamarissz XxBoysCringe69420xX XxBoys69420cringexx is a meme tribe by Lost Comet. It is based on Reddit. XxBoys69420cringexx has the ability to force opinions on other tribes. They don't use fighting or violence but use brainwashing to conquer other tribes. They also have an obsession with upvotes and karma. Terrain Fields: dark theme colour Forests: upvote symbols Fruits: rectangles with 69420 written on them Cities have green cone roofs Animals: aliens All units T pose Headwear: a green cone City name syllables an, xx, hi, me, 0, cc, t, 69, po, er, i, va, noi, es, 42, se, ce Multiple city names are possible that are words used in memes, for example Tpose, Meme, Noice, Antivaxx, Anime and many more. (This tribe is clearly a timeless gem, we felt like it’s appropriate to include it now in the time of a meme contest.) Aquazine 2020 | 32| Page 13 Credits Editor-in-chief: tamarissz Lector: The Aquazine team: gamesRme123, Lost Comet, T Shadow, tamarissz, sophiacastle Cover art by Midjify Game sprites by Midjiwan, Midjitree and Midjify Join The Crab Cult to participate. Next week on Aquazine! Oumaji theme song Meme contest results Midjiteam is expanding Will this really be the cover? Aquazine 2020 | 32| Page 14