Server update

When do the updates run?

There are two server updates

• The major update (which alters delegacy) starts at about 6:00 GMT, and completes somewhere around 8:30 GMT.
• The minor update should be in the neighbourhood of 18:00 - 21:00 GMT.
• With regard to Daylight Savings Time: "Jolt runs on GMT, so I would assume the server's clock does whatever GMT does." - The Most Glorious Hack

The UK may be on British Summer Time (GMT 1) and NOT GMT - but GMT does NOT switch! GMT remains the same all year around. (see Greenwich Mean Time web page [1])

What do they do?

During both updates,

• any issue choices made by your nation are processed,

• for nations set to two issues per day (or per weekday), an issue is placed in their issue box.

• UN proposals slated to expire at that update expire.

Extra things happen only during only the UN Update. As you may guess, these things have to do with the UN.

• First off, the delegateship plate (UN Member/UN Delegate under your name) can only change hands during this time.

• One final thing that happens is that the UN rankings are updated during the update (as it cycles through the regions) and the new list is posted at the very end of the update.

• If the resolution at vote ends that day, though, voting ends during the offhand update, not during the UN update.

• If a successful vote is recorded, the Compliance Ministry telegram machine is kicked into gear so that all UN members recieve notification of the effects to their nation. - Tech Forum FAQ

Updates and Invading

The Most Glorious Hack 

This example will use two regions that I'm in: The Coalition of the Culinary (TCC) and That Place Over There (TPOT).

Say the update starts at 03:30:01 Central Time. Before, the game would go through the list of regions alphabetically, and hit each in turn. This means that TPOT would update before TCC ("That" comes before "The"). However, both being in the 'T's, they would update towards the end of the cycle, say at 03:58:02 for TPOT and 03:58:51 for TCC.

With random update times, the game randomly moves from region to region (or, more likely, compiles a list of all regions and randomizes it). This means that TCC could be updated before TPOT, or TPOT could update first. Or last.

When the update ends depends on the number of nations and regions being updated, of course.

Why? Well, this makes split second invasions much more difficult. When one could predict almost the exact moment of update, one could move in right before the update and seize the delegacy before natives or defenders would have a chance to respond.

Ballotonia 

The prior order wasn't alphabetical, trust me on that one

Such quick invasions hardly ever happened before. When it was done that way it was mostly done by defenders in an attempt to liberate a region from invader occupation. I know, I've done a few of those myself . Invaders generally avoid the extra effort and pick a target where the natives aren't paying attention anyway. Now that the order is 'random', invasion/defense play starts at the beginning of the update cycle. Natives still have little time to respond (little over 1 hour on average), but quick manouvering by defenders to get invaders out is no longer an option due to the randomness in the update. IMHO, the randomization killed a fun aspect of the game. Now it's more easy for invaders to hold on to regions and there's still a strategy possible which allows them to completely avoid defenders altogether in taking the region in the first place. That they are still having trouble beating defenders speaks volumes on those invaders' tactical skills. - [2]