A quick explanation of the new game modes:

<strong>Reverse Income</strong>:
Poorest countries receive the income of the richest countries, and vice versa.

<strong>Lottery Income</strong>:
A sum equal to five times the largest income is given away each cycle by lottery, with the smallest countries having the greatest odds of winning.

<strong>Declaration of War</strong>:
All countries begin with a 28 day treaty, requiring players to actually break a treaty ("declare war") in order to attack another player.

Interesting... I think one could actually learn some good life / political lessons from these game modes- we will see who figures them out...

I didn't realize exactly what the Reverse Income meant when I started on Quiupa. Somehow I thought it meant "no income". If I would have read this first and thought it over, I probably would have had a different strategy.

Another question on reverse income- if we lose our capital, do do we get half the income we would have gotten? i.e., if the poorest country loses it's capital, does it get half the income of the richest country? Or does the richest country get half the income of the poorest country in that case?

and I might have made a wrong assumption on what poorest and richest means... is it in terms of land, or of money?

Richest/poorest is decided based on money. Essentially, the money swap happens, and then losses are taken out (lost capital penalty and maintenance fees).

So, if the largest income was $100,000 and you were the smallest income at $10,000, but didn't have your capital, you would get $50,000 (minus maintenance fees).

I've always liked the diplomacy component in the game. I think the new modes will definitely make it more interesting!

So just to make sure, for deciding rich / poor level for the purpose of the swap, it doesn't matter how much money you currently have- it just matters what your cycle income is. and more land still equals higher income (before the swap) - Is that all correct?

Exactly right!

Having played on Qiupa, I have to say I'm not a fan of reverse income. The map has become three small countries who actually understand the concept duking it out while four larger countries expand mindlessly. The large countries actually sabotage we smaller countries' efforts. If the biggest country keeps expanding, then it becomes nigh impossible to destroy the smallest country due to our income imbalance. I am more concerned about staying below 37 total size so I don't get horrible income than I am about fighting, and that makes it incredibly difficult to make strategic dispositions.

If a map like this was played by people who all understood the concept and tried to stay small, everyone would get low income because no one could afford to expand and help their enemies.

:)

I see your political stance is conservative, so you may have already understood the danger of socialism, which is basically what this game mode is about. Sorry to give it away to everyone now, but it's too hard to keep quiet on that anymore... Kill capitalism and you kill motivation to work for bettering of society. End result of socialism = everyone destined to live in poverty.

Of course there will probably still be others too stubborn to see the moral of this game. Ah well... Se la vie...

I haven't been paying close enough attention to the main GT page for quiopa- now that I actually look at it, it's confusing... I guess it's that money per sector that confuses me. That must be calculated last, after the swap happens, but using my own sector count. Is that right?

That's correct, yes! It's just a quick calculation of how much you earned over the sector count, which is done when the page is loaded.

Still a little confused on how the income is being calculated. There is an enormous difference between first and second incomes on Qiupa, and even though I show the lowest sector count, it's rare that I'm seeing the higher income. I know that ships count their occupied sectors for the country's total, but are only land sectors being counted when determining who gets what income or what?

The swap is actually entirely based on income, so sector ownership isn't a factor. (Of course, income is certainly affected by sector ownership.)

So, if country X has 20 sectors and makes $8010, and country Y has 15 sectors but makes $8020, country X will receive the highest income simply because the income was the lowest.