NationStates Jolt Archive

Hi, I'm new here. (Kind of, been lurking for a couple weeks.) and I have a few questions about how the game is run on the message boards. I'm sorry if this doesn't belong on this board, this was the best place as far as I could figure, and this thread: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=275323&page=1 seemed to imply that this is a good place for it.

1. As far as I can tell, the game is played on a real world map, where could my nation start? Everywhere seems to be claimed.

2. Where do you get stats for your armies? I've seen several people post how many troops they are sending into battle, but I have no idea how how they got these numbers. (On a bit of a sidenote, how are battles resolved?)

Thanks in advance!

1. It's not a real world map, it's not possible (not big enough). The whole thing is made up. Your nation is in a "reigion" (a group of nations) which is like an area of a continent. Like, in real like, Western Europe would be a reigion containing the nations France, Germany, Spain, etc.
There's no limit on the number of nation that can be in a region, so no-where's already "claimed" as it were. By default you start in the Pacific, but you can move your nation to a new region, or even make your own.

2. Armies are normally calculated based on your population. I caluclate mine by starting with GDP calc, a PHP script which uses your economy and populatiojn to work out how much money you have. For you, the URL would be http://www.pipian.com/stuffforchat/gdpcalc.php?nation=Stuffythings

I then created a spreadsheet where I enter my population and budget according to GDP calc, and what % of my pop i want in my military (I use 3.5%), and the formulae in my spreadsheet works out the rest, from how many GIs i have to how many grenades I need to equip everyone.

You don't have to be that comprehensive. As long as you're sensible and don't "godmod" (saying you have unfair amounts of troops, or refuse to die), you can pretty much make it up. Note that your economy would collapse if you have too much of your pop in your military.

Battles are RPed (Role-Played), and the battle is decided by whomever's army defeats the other. The specifics are discussed in various stickies, I think in the Gameplay and International Incidents forums. If you're stuck, read them, they answer most of the more common questions.

Nibbleton

I might not have made the first bit clear. The "Pacific" isnt the real pacific, it's the nationstates pacific, it doesnt represent any real part of the world, the Nationstates world is a seperate world, in much the same way that say, a world in a game like Final Fantasy is different from the real world. The default region is called The Pacific for convenience, as much as anything.

I know that this isn't the right place for this, but I have a question, what does the term sticky mean when relating to a thread? I noticed it was mentioned in your explanation.

A sticky is a thread which always stays at the top of the list of threads in the forum it's posted in. Only Moderators and Admins can make a thread sticky. A thread will be made sticky if it contains vital information that everyone should read (so read them! ;) ) You can tell which they are becuase their titles have "Sticky:" in front of them.

Thanks.

I have a some questions:

1) If two nations are fighting, both with reasonably equal population and money, how is a winner decided?

2) Say a nation lost a battle, thus resulting in a mass decline of economy, there would surely be no physical change to that nations data, as the battle is just a roleplay. Does this mean roleplaying is just a fun activity that does not affect your nation at all?

1. Just becuase they have the same pop and money doesn't mean they fight the same way. While Naiton A might favor ground warfare and move to defend its borders, Nation B might have a fleet of bombers ready to fly in and decimate the ememy's front line before it brings in its own troops. Its all about tactics. You don't even have to kill the opposing army to win. You might use Blitzkreig tactics and march right into your opponent's capital and capture their royal family before they can do anything about it. Wars can go many ways, and the better at RPing you are, the more inventive you get ;)

2. There's a few things you could do here. You can either ignore the fact that your nation's economy declines, therefore using the RPed war as "fun while it lasts", or you can RP the fact that you're in a depression, even though your stats say it isn't, or you can answer Issues in a way you know will cause a decline in your economy. It's really up to you how you handle it, there's no "rule" as the events are made-up, you just have to be sensible about it and use the method which suits you best.

What if you have a fairly radical weapons technology idea? How do you develop it in game so that people don't think you're cheating?

What if you have a fairly radical weapons technology idea? How do you develop it in game so that people don't think you're cheating?

I think there are a number of ways to do this. I'm a modern tech country that's developing a space force. IRL, there's no way that's ever going to happen, but in the NS world, what I did was initially create a post where I had various "characters" discuss the events of a war and try to figure out the lessons behind it. Using that as the base, I then led it into the need to develop a space force.

I think as long as you create a post where there's a reasonable effort to show that you're at least beginning the process of developing the technology, that should be fine. I am also having this mostly-modern tech country develop a warp drive with the help of another country. We're roleplaying things like notes toward developing the faster-than-light technology.

That's my take on the matter. If this is confusing, feel free to telegram me and I'll send you links to threads where I've done the above.