NationStates Jolt Archive

For those who know me, either IC'ly or OOC'ly, it's no surprise that I RP my national defences as among the best in the NS Universe. I mention it constantly (I wouldn't really say as bragging, more just informing my RP partners). My orbital defences verge on Godmodding (If they didn't cost so much and have no offensive capability they would be Godmodding) and my infantry capabilites would make any kind of land invasion an impossibility (We're talking instant transportation of millions of soldiers to practically any spot in my territory). On the other hand, my offensive space fleet is nothing special. Don't get me wrong, it's a kick ass fleet, but I can't single handedly attack and conquer a dozen nations at the same time with my current fleet. I could, however, survive such a war. People often ask, "Why do you have yourself be impregnable but unable to smash others at the slightest whim?" Well, my first reason is that people'd just ignore me for Godmodding if I tried to do that, but I like the second reason better. My second is is because everybody has the right to run themselves as they wish.

NationStates is a place where you control your own nation, that is the most basic point of the game. Everything else, war and peace, prosperity and depression, that's all in addition to your ability to run your country, what happens with them comes as a result of how you run your country. I've always felt that neither I, nor anybody else, has a right to conquer your nation and run it for you just because I'm bigger and RP myself as more technologically advanced.

I have myself be a nearly invulnerable nation because I feel that I have a right to decide exactly what happens to my people, the only time other nations get to intervene is when I chose to allow them. Likewise, other people have every right to expect me to keep my nose out of their affairs. Therefor, my fleet is ill-equipped to just march in and take over. If I wanted to conquer you, and not merely defeat you in a war (The two are quite different), then I'd need to expend much more resources than would be worth it (My IC reasons for not embarking on a War of Conquest every other day). So, I can't conquer you and you can't conquer me, but we're still in a position to defend ourselves should somebody else chose to conquer us.

This, I feel, provides the most fruitful grounds for pleasant Role-Play. It gives me the option of having war where I can be both victorious and defeated, but where I'll always remain independent and in control of myself. The very point of this game: Your nation, your rules, their destiny.

"My house, my castle" also encapsulates this mentality nicely. Or, to be more accurate, "My nation, my barbed-wire-lined vigilantly policed fortress-state."

I myself have much the same thing going; Tsaraine has a fairly good, very advanced military, but it lacks the numbers or the force projection to do much in the way of offence.

I don't think, however, that we see so much of the "RAWR I INVADZ0RZ J00" nonsense these days, at least on NS - I'm much less sure of what goes on in II, of course.

I agree fully.

We forget that there are no standard rules in Nationstates to define the competition, and wars that take place.

This is meant to be a fun open roleplaying game, for people to roleplay what happens within their nations and roleplay their nations. Each individual person has a right to run their nation how they wish, provided that they do not intentionally provoke others.

I've got some offensive punches I've never thrown. For that matter, no one's ever tried to penetrate my nation's defenses. Perhaps it's that 10th largest defense forces in the world thing? But I'm not immortal, nor is my nation, and frankly neither is anyone else's. If you truly have a nation you will never accept can be invaded or successfully attacked or defended against, you're just godmodding and using FFRP as an excuse for pointless penis wank. I don't think any story hinges on "MY NATION IS INDEFEATABLE" and that if they do, they aren't very good stories. But then I don't see this as entirely FFRP either. I think we have character stats in the form of population and economy.

PSSST! That's where my saying I'm nearly invulnerable comes into play. I'm not completely invincible, nor is anybody else.

I wholeheartedly agree - one of the reasons I like NS is so that I can plan my nations according to how I like them - whether a stupidly powerful but hideously outnumbered cabal, a religious fundamentalist nation with more sermons than sense or a Combined Goblin Collective whose main strength in war is having more spaceships than the enemy does firing capability.