English reply to 【刺風】對於南韓的公投結果(CH/EN) / The Cost

Day 2,143, 01:22 • Published in Republic of China (Taiwan) Greece • by Steveeven

17 hours ago, klonoa wind wrote an article titled, “【刺風】對於南韓的公投結果(CH/EN)” at http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-ch-en--2324703/1/20.

Initially, I was going to comment on the comments section but I later decided to make a response article instea😛

Thanks for the article and thanks for the poll. eROK wants to leave CoT and join TWO. I think the reason why is because TWO is the strongest alliance and a TWO country is occupying their territories. By joining TWO, eROK is hoping the get their country back from us, since, then, we would be member countries. Naturally, we think it's a bad idea. However, our opinion will have little influence on eROK's decision.

I can think of a few possibilities, and we need to be careful. I will assume eROK will continue to have the intention to join TWO. One, and the best-case scenario, TWO member countries rejects eROK's request to join our alliance. Our occupation will remain unchanged. Second, TWO accepts eROK's request but leaves the land negotiation to us and eROK. With this possibility, we might still be able to hold on to some of eROK's land. Third, TWO accepts eROK's request and orders us to relinquish our hold on eROK. If we reject this order, we risk damaging our reputation with the TWO alliance. The fourth and worse possibility is that TWO, for whatever reason, accepts eROK's request and decides to kick us, eROC, out of their alliance. There are possible reasons. We are still a relatively new member and were former enemies. They might not trust us as we don't trust eROK. And our hatred of eROK could work against us. If they accept one, they probably won't be able to accept the other.

The chief countries we need to lobby are ePoland and eSerbia. They are the founders of TWO and are powerful. If we can persuade them that they can't be trusted or other reasons, then everything will be fine.

Now moving on to my opinion, I have some things to say about our relationship with eROK. Many eROC citizens don’t like eROK as evidenced by klonoa’s poll. Arguments include that eROK cannot be trusted. I want to say something. How long? How much time needs to pass before we can trust eROK again? Does eSK need to give us gold or money, or tribute? I know of past deals with eSK that has gone sour but how long will we punish them for it? We are already punishing eSK by taking their land. So my question is, will we ever trust eSK again, and, if yes, under what conditions. If our answer is no, then we will be unreasonable, unless of course, our reason is to get the x1.5 production bonus, which leads me on to my next point.

I don’t think many players have thought about this, but there are costs of occupation. eRepublik players say they occupy other countries to get the resource bonus. But I have seen few players talk about the cost. By occupying countries, we make enemies. Those enemies can launch RW’s and fight against us in wars. That can negate or even cost us more than what the x1.5 resource bonus will give us. Here are some calculations (And I apologize that this article has no pictures. Adding pictures takes too much of my time 🙁 )

Enemy State:

eROC: 1,931 (citizen population) * 1.5 (1 = base, +0.1 for each resource) = 2,896.5 Real Power (RPI)
eSK: 1,697 (citizen population) * 1.0 = 1,697 Real Power

Since we are enemies of eSK, I will subtract our RPI with eSK’s RPI:

2,896.5 – 1,697 = 1,199.5 RPI left

Please read my past article “Real Power Indicator (RPI)” http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/real-power-indicator-rpi--2323548/1/20 for more information on RPI calculations.

So, our actual RPI, after taking account of occupying eSK, is 1,199.5.

Now, theoretically, what if we have a cease-fire with eSK and they join TWO or if they are our ally. What are the calculations then?

Neutral / Friend State:

eROC: 1,931 (citizen population) * 1.2 (1 = base, +0.1 for each resource) = 2,317.2 Real Power (RPI)
eSK: 1,697 (citizen population) * 1.3 = 2,206.1 Real Power

Since, in this example, we are neutral to eROK, there will be no subtractions of our RPI with eSK. Thus, our total RPI will still be 2,317.2.

If relations improve and we are allies, we might even be able to add eSK’s RPI with ours:

2,317.2 + 2,206.1 = 4,523.3

But, that is a long-shot, given our current relations.

1,199.5 RPI with eSK as our enemy or 2,317.2 with eSK as neutral or ally, which would you choose? I would choose, for the interest of eTaiwan, the 2,317.2 and with eSK as neutral. The +50% resource bonus is not worth it.

Some eROC players may say eSK might back-stab us. Well, if both eROC and eROK are in the same alliance, eROK will *not* be able to betray us. If eSK does, then they will be kicked out of TWO and will be under occupation again, this time, with other TWO countries’ help.

I also want to make it clear that I am not against eTaiwan (my parents are from Taiwan, I'm ABC, not disclosing anything more). I want to use logic and mathematics to show that it is better to have eSouth Korea as a neutral than an enemy. If eSK only has 10 citizens or another low population number, then taking eSK for resource bonus would be worth it.

PS: If you disagree with the RPI calculations, I can build a similar case using only citizen population numbers and it will be even more in favor of having eSK as a neutral/ally.

Thank you for reading my article and translations are welcome.

Please vote and share!