NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello to all and welcome! Are you in need of a burst of RPing insight? Need some spice added to the stew of your war? Well friends, you've come to the right place! Proudly offered by and hosted by Samtonia, this Rping clinic is designed to help you with all your troubles in RPing.

Doesn't it sound great? "But how do I sign up Uncle Sammy?"
That's simple. Just post here that you want in, or telegram Samtonia with information. We'll start when I feel ready. After the training starts, new recruits will only be accepted by telegrammed request.

Hurry and join! Because the skills you learn today will help you forever! (Or at least as long as you're on Nationstates)

And if the doesn't work, any nOOb that attacks me will be glassed.

OOC: Mate, I have been looking for this thread for too long. I want in. /OOC

IC The Dominion of Leumah is highly interested in the services offered by Samtonia.

We are interested in the RPing clinic.

OOC: Some might consider me a pretty good RPer now, but I figure there's always more to learn.

I'm considering it, but I want to know more. Is there anything else you can tell me about this clinic?

I would be interested in attending

I'd be interested in attending this clinc. My RP skills could use a'sharpening.

Yes newbies join his clinic. And let me give you one quick lesson.

NEVER ATTACK FOR NO REASON.


I'm sorry, I'm still bitter....

It's alright TIOR, just remember those I.G.N.O.R.E cannons I sent you. Work every time.

*sniffles*

I might need a shoulder to cry on every now and then...
XD

There, There...

SEE WHAT N00BS DID TO HIM?!?!?

*sniffles*
They attack me for no weason... I don't know them...

*goes into a fetal position*

(hmm, better put things back on topic)

Points to TIOR- Are you a new player? Do you want this to happen to people? No? THEN JOIN HERE!!!

Newbies join him, don't drive superpowers insane with your ignorance!

Not that I'm a superpower....

Well, of course, I want to make sure I have all the RPing niceeties down, so....

Wait, is that a Triancian spider being trampled upon by the Island of Rose in this seemingly doctored photo?

THEY WILL PAY!!!!!!

*launches missles*

Kidding, of course. :)

Heh, nice save XD

Remember all n00bs that attack me will be glassed, good day :)

Well hello and welcome to all! You all are accepted into this hopefully informative lesson in roleplaying. I'm just going to let this thread age a bit more, hopefully attracting more people into it.

Ximea, basically what I'm trying to offer here is tips and hints of what work for me in roleplaying and examples and practice for us all, through a good old war with me as the behind-the-scenes referee. But let's start this off with a bit of a lesson (More to come).

LESSON ONE
Always read the FAQs. They really can help. As soon as they're back up fully, I'll give some links out. But they're not. So we all have to wait. Darn pesky server....

Don't forget Diplomatic missions too.

I want in too!

Can I be an instructor?

Me too, I wanna help with diplomatic missions! They'll have fun with me...

*laughs maniacally*

Hello, Sam.

I am interested in you RP lesson things or whatever we are calling them. That will be all. Unless I was supposed to say something more. If I was please assume that is it written here in a white font, therefore making it invisible to most. Okay, now that should be all.

Thank you,

Fangs
The Holy Emipre of Fangmann

i can help with future tech rp assistance if its required. Always useful for noobs to know how to deal with 6 legged monstrocity's over a nice cup of tea :P

I would be interesting in attending, as the LoD academy seems to have died or something. Do you have a sci-fi department, good sir? If not, general instruction would be better than running into it a complete newb.

I would wish to observe the processess you use with the possible intentions of joining if I see something that might be useful, or if I have some knowledge or insight that would be likewise useful to any of the other participants.

i finnaly found this thread yay!!!
Yes Samtonia i would like to join

i can help with future tech rp assistance if its required. Always useful for noobs to know how to deal with 6 legged monstrocity's over a nice cup of tea :P

[OOC: Could I trouble you for some future tech ground combat lessons/practice?

Hell, I could use some MODERN TECH ground help.]

Sorry I haven't replied for a day or so. I couldn't get on the forums. But enough of my story....

All who want in are accepted. Anyone who wants to be an instructor, please TG me and maybe we can work out a way to go over articles together.

As to those future tech requests, unfortunately I'm planning on doing a more recent tech thing at this time. However, you're still welcome in this. Now, on to our lesson....

LESSON TWO
Check your post for grammatical errors. A minute spent doing this will save headaches later. I've posted a helpful checklist of thoughts on this, follow them and your posts will be both interesting AND understandable.

And here's the site:
http://www.freewebs.com/samsrules/

(Sorry if the tone of the website is a bit condascending, this was originally conceived for certain "problem posters" to try to force them to post in a method that could be understood.)

I would love to join

You are accepted! Welcome to all.

Bumpity-bump-bump-bump.

If you want to be even closer to Samtonia and his knowledgable ways feel free to join our region, Discombobulatia.

Why thank you for advertising for our region Sub. Everyone, if you would note that Suburpeia is NOT a puppet of me. Really. If I wanted to advertise for my region, i would. Which I will. It's a great place. I like it, although I do have to be the voice of reason at times. (Sigh). But reall, it's a great region. Now, lesson three will be put up tonight by me, so you can all have something to look forward to!

Lesson Three
Godmodding. Also known as Godmoding. What is it? The most insidious threat on nationstates. Worse than spammers, worse thanaggressive nations. But what is it? I present to you the official nationstates definition and FAQ. Anything underlined is a heading and anything bolded is a description of what will be written about.

Godmoding is:
Saying what happens to other people's stuff.
Example: "Okay, I just blew up 300,000 of your troops!"
Why this is Godmoding: Because in FreeForm Roleplay, it's up to the person being attacked to determine their own losses. This leads to...

Refusing to take any losses. Or lose. Ever.
Example: "Oh, well, my soldiers had personal forcefields so none of them were actually hurt. "
Why this is Godmoding: This is probably where godmoding gets its name (from God Mode in Doom, where you were invincible after typing IDDQD). Naturally, if nobody ever takes a hit, the fight degenerates into "I HIT YOU!" "NO YOU DIDN'T!", etc.

Having übertech, armies that are too large, etc.
Example: A 2 day old nation with a population of 6 million posts "My 6 billion man army in vades u with NUKES!!!!1"
Why this is Godmoding: Okay, little guy nations, I know you're anxious to start throwing your weight around, but let's be honest; you are piddling nothings when you first start out in the world. You really shouldn't start with nukes, and your army shouldn't ever be more than 5% of your population(that's for what you can field...the rest represents non-coms, supply lines, factories, etc
This is just a short list. Other nations, please feel free to contribute (SERIOUS!) additions to this list.

ADDED BY TJHAIRBALL THE MODERATOR:
Also, everybody's happier if you pay attention to logistics. And if you don't know much about Role Playing, there are people willing to teach you.(EDIT-Like me.)

Troops and Godmoding
As well as the troops that just won't die, godmoding extends to troops which do other interesting things.

Stealth Troops
"Stealth" is a cool word, but it doesn't mean "invisible". A stealth bomber is just harder to detect than an ordinary one is on radar - ditto stealth fighters. To my knowledge, there is no such thing as a "stealth tank", "stealth rocket launcher" or anything else like that.

Invisible Troops
The temptation with magic (of any description) is to make people and things invisible. Thus, "my invisible tank has driven into the middle of your city. HA HA."
Think about this for a minute. Invisibility only extends to sight - an "invisible tank" would still make noise, especially when it shot you. "Invisible troops" would be even harder to work with, doors would open by themselves and all those orders of the sergeants would be very audible.

Very Fast Troops
NationStates is a big place. You might have a large army, but if it's all on one side of the world fighting in one war, it can't suddenly appear on the other side of the world fighting in another war. In other words, your battalions can only be in one place at once.

Acts of God

The cheapest godmode tactic of them all -- invoking God. Surely there is nothing more repugnant than that, especially to those of us who -are- religious. This is a game. God has better things to do with His time than intercede in someone's RPing.

The Space-Time Continuum and God-Moding
Just because your country zips around in flying saucers and comes from another planet doesn't mean it's invincible. See below:

Future-tech VS Present-tech
What's to stop an M-16, well-aimed, from knocking out all sorts of important bits of androids?

Future-tech VS Past-tech
Even a catapult could do some sort of damage. Ditto a crossbow bolt - they're still effective murder weapons today.

Present-tech VS Past-tech
If your castle's being shelled by tanks, try to tip some boiling oil over them. Crude, but effective.

Wars….
Wars on your soil damage your infrastructure and economy in ways not quantified by the game in NS1. Wars abroad typically cost lots of money. Keep that in mind, for those of you who are frequent warmongers.

Goods and Weapons

When selling/inventing weapons... keep the specs reasonable, as well as the cost.

Example: If you claim you can sell a fighter jet for around $1M USD at any sort of profit, it obviously can't be a topline modern fighter... small old fighters like the F-5 Eagle come to mind.

When in doubt, check prices online of comparable stuff. If your stuff qualifies as "cutting edge" - i.e., most of what you can find online is inferior to it - then you need to boost how much it costs you. Also note that how much the contracting costs your government will vary according to corruption and cost of labor in your country; the rate at which you can build new weapons will vary according to how much industry your country has. For some countries, particularly a number that have no close realworld equivalent and few factories, manufacturing may be largely done by humans, or sometimes even individual craftsmen; in others, it is entirely mechanized. The most efficient method varies wildly from state to state.

When buying weapons...
remember the above, and additionally remember that the manufacturer may be over-reporting the specs slightly. That top speed of 700mph for your new bomber may have been clocked relative to the ground with a hurricane strength tail wind, and only the pilot and a quarter tank of fuel on board - no cargo, no payload, no copilot, no guns, etc.

When selling supplies...
try to keep in mind RW prices. You may be able to undersell this by a significant amount, or oversell to gullible or desparate countries, but it's a good marker to look at.

Even if they gave it to you...
it still costs money to maintain. It may be dirt cheap to man it if you're a communist state, and easy to find skilled operators if you're well educated, but the nuclear subs won't work if you don't have a source of uranium. Which is expensive. So is new ordinance to replace the stuff you fired off during the last war on Tuesday.

Economy vs. Military
Sometimes, a lousy economy is entirely due to too much military spending. When in doubt, refer to (if possible) a nation's per capita military spending ranking. Poorer nations often have armies that are more effective for their money, but typically less potent in absolute terms. Manpower available for your military forces should typically run to around <1-3% of your population (on the higher end for smaller countries) unless you have a really good reason.

Such as the fact that your entire population all have cheap assault rifles, have no permanent home, and exist as nomadic raiders. In which case, you don't have much of an infrastructure to manufacture stuff with.

The indefatigable army.

Ok, so you've just conscripted your huge (but not too huge) army from your reservists. You've sent them to fight, they arrive in reasonable time, and then you go and screw it up by having them all act like Space Marines. Think about it: how much of your army is career soldiers and how much is petrified civil servants who just want to go home? Your army will start to lose hope if they're being absolutely hammered in some foreign land for reasons they can barely remember.

The magical EMP / EMP shield argument

Eg: 'Ok, I'm going after your major cities with cruise missiles.'
'Aha! My EMP defences short out your missiles and defeat you!'
'But...Don't they destroy every electronic device in your cities, too?'
'No, because they're...Shielded. Yeah.'
'But then why couldn't I just send a spy to buy, say, a calculator or trouser press which would allow me to learn your secrets?'
'<Random swearing>'

EMP ain't magic. If you're a nation which has EMP devices and uses them regularly, it'd be ridiculous to think that in all that time nobody would have come up with an effective defence. Same goes for most technology, in fact: you should assume that a nation who has faced your mighty ubertech on the battlefield has gone off and built something to counter it.

Completely discounting an opponent

'I attack you. You're small, I'm big. I win.'
'That was fun...'

Ok, with superior numbers and weaponry you'll probably have a fairly one-sided fight, but you shouldn't just assume your enemy will be a walkover. Remember, you're on your enemy's home turf and they're fighting for their homes and families. They won't roll over and die just like that. SPR is not real and you can't beat an enemy by throwing troops at his machine gun nests in the hope he'll eventually run out of ammunition.

Anything perfect

That goes for your tanks that never break down, your troops that never give up, your NMD that never misses...

Not looking before you leap

Eg: 'I send a fleet to your nation.'
'Err...The only port we have comes in bottles...'

ASK. If you're going to war with someone, ask for a basic breakdown of their nation's appearence, size and military strength. And if they go in for all that 'CLASSIFIED' rubbish, it means they're either a Godmodder or they're terrified of being called one.

'Untraceable'

Yeah, sure your opponent has no chance of finding out it's you when you send six humans to infiltrate a country which turns out to be elves / sentient mice / dragons / psychic hamsters. Again, ask first.


But how do you combat godmodding? Find out how in the next lesson!

I could always use some improvement.

Well c'mon in. You and anyone else who wants to join are welcome. Just look through the thread for my other lessons and you'll be up to speed in no time.

Whoa...this is like New Nations Alliance Redux! Good job!

Whoa...this is like New Nations Alliance Redux! Good job!

And to think I was going to revive the WMNK!

As I said at the beginning of the thread, my RPing is in need of help. This clinic is great so far.
My combat RPing skills are nonexistent :(

Lets say a bigot was attacking a nation who represents a religious entity you sympathize with, expressly for the purpose of exacting revenge for what other members of that religion had done in the past. They are modern tech, you are future tech, but your ground forces are modern tech. Can you fairly attack them with ground forces then, and forgo ships if the first aggressor is making a fuss about them?

Why thank you Zoogie. NNA redux... I like the sound of that....

Now, Arizona, I'll try to tell you what I think and why I think it. If I misinterpreted your question, feel free to correct me. I'm going to assume that this does not involve invoking the power of god, i.e: fist of god smashing aside tanks, etc. Therefore, I'm going to assume you're asking if nations of differeing tech levels such as those mentioned can fight one another fairly. Absolutely. A gun is just as effective against humans, be it past, present, or future. Sure, vehicles may be more difficult to destroy, but they can be handled. Why, even those spaceships you mentioned could be used. After all, in the future, weapons are energy based. Who's to say that these ships don't only have energy shielding? Thus, missile+spaceship's hull=dead spaceship. So, to sum it up, yes, that fighting would be perfectly acceptable.

EDIT- Just saw that both ground forces were modern. Then yes, no problems at all. We would simply assume the ground forces got there by big fancy flying saucer as opposed to big, ungainly landing craft.

So, Sam, I have a question. In the world of RPing, is mythological stuff allowed? Can my armies be composed of a few vampires? Am I allowed to have a dragon? Are there policies/rules on things like these? Or is this something would vary from instance to instance depending on the personal choices of those involved?

And since I'm here posting anyways, I am here to back up up Samtonia and Suburpeia and say that our nation, Discombobulatia, does rock. Not only do we have good ol' Samtonia who is always overflowing with his grammatical and RPing expertise, but we also have some good humour and insanity from The, umm, something of Top Hat Smileys. Plus, we are all really cool. Yeah, that's it... cool. So, check it out, it's a great place.

That will be all, unless I can have some fries with that.

Yes Fangs, it is. Just have to work out a few more rules, guidelines, etc... before you start to fight. and the next lesson will be up tomorrow. I promise.

*looks up from copious notes and raises hand*

Sam, did you mention something about "assuming" already? As in "assuming" that someone else already knows that you send x,y, or z with a, b, or c?

An example -
"I'm sending my troops relief supplies in C-130 transports!"
"Ha! My F-16s blow them out of the sky!"
"How? They have to get past my F-22s?"
"What F-22s? You didn't say anything about F-22s!"
"You've got to assume I'm sending escort with transports!"

Well, no I don't... the military is chock full of idiot maneuvers by many for whatever reason (charge of the light brigade comes to mind)...

So, your take on this, Teacher?

I would say simply rewind time to before the attack, so both people know what will happen and roleplay from there, with the knowledge of what hey thought was clear but was not clear for both of you. Remember, the goal isn't to necessarily win the war, it's to create a fun and enjoyable rp.

The Democratic Republic of New Freewood is interested.

I'll post not just one but TWO, you heard it, TWO lessons tomorrow to make up for the delay. Sorry, I've been very busy. And I'm too tired to do it tonight. So there!

All right. 'Ere we go!
Lesson Four
The IGNORE Cannon

We've all heard about the deviousness of those pesky godmodders. So what to do? Simply fire an IGNORE cannon round over at them. Every nation gets one of these. It's indestructable and infinitely powerful. But be careful how you use it!

What an ignore cannon does is, basically, ignore part of the rp you're in. From insanely low estimates of damage ("HAH! I shot down all 111,113,584,970 nukes of yours but one! And only four dogs died because of it!") to troop placements that are too large ("My 150,000,000,000,000 man army marches into your country!" Uhhhh, you know your poulation is only 10 million, right?") to nations that are just so dumb and annoying that you never want to hear them again, the IGNORE cannon is your most potent weapon. That part of the rp ceases to exist to you.

So if they ignore damage, you just ignore the forces that should have been destroyed. If they ignore population limits, you ignore parts of their military, etc, etc, etc....

HOWEVER!

The IGNORE cannon should not be used lightly. It is a weapon that, if used to try to be a godmodder or just pretend a more powerful country does not exist, will inflame public opinion against you. So be careful, use it wisely, but above all, use it in a productive way to increase the effectiveness of your rps.

Coming up in Lesson 5: Your economy and how much is too much spending!

Lesson Five
Intro to your economy
So, you've got the basic idea about RPing. You know what not to do and you want to go out and buy a military.

Wait a minute hotshot! Do you have ANY idea what you are doing?

The tendency of most new RPers is to spend inordinately high amouts of their budget and far too vast amounts of their population on military. Today we focus on the budget.

Your nation makes a certain amount of money. It is in a budget, which is rather high the richer you are. So what is your budget? I find the best way to figure out a rough sum is to go to:

http://www.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?nation=Samtonia

replacing Samtonia with your country's name, replacing spaces with underscores if need be.

If you look in the top right hand box, you'll soon find your Government Budget. It's a big sum, isn't it? Mine is $35,517,924,288,000.00. High amounts, hey?

But Samtonia, you say, We have our budgets. Now what?

WEll, we're going to figure out your defence budget. You all know how to multiply by percentages, right? Figure out a percentage of your budget you want for military.

Now, keeping that percentage in your head, repeat after me:
I AM STUPID AND KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BUDGETS.

There. That wasn't easy, was it? Isn't fun to be reminded of lack of knowledge about budgetary things, is it? Well too bad. It'll help you do what I say now. Forget the percentage. Forget it. Put it out of your mind.

Now, our new guidelines for military budgets.

NO MORE THEN 35% OF YOUR TOTAL BUDGET TO MILITARY!!!

That's right. No greater than 35%. 35% is even really high, higher then even North Korea's, who have the largest army in the world. But we're screwed up on Nationstates. So all you warmongers and paranoids out there can get huge amounts of troops. But anything over 35% would make your nation fall apart, due to lack of funds for everything else.

So there you have it. Your budget. Tune in next time to hear jokes about Ralph Nader! More info on budgets! And of course the ever-helpful Thought of the Day!

PS- Ignore the rest of the stuff on the website for now. We'll cover it another day...

Lesson Five
Intro to your economy
So, you've got the basic idea about RPing. You know what not to do and you want to go out and buy a military.

Wait a minute hotshot! Do you have ANY idea what you are doing?

The tendency of most new RPers is to spend inordinately high amouts of their budget and far too vast amounts of their population on military. Today we focus on the budget.

Your nation makes a certain amount of money. It is in a budget, which is rather high the richer you are. So what is your budget? I find the best way to figure out a rough sum is to go to:

http://www.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?nation=Samtonia

replacing Samtonia with your country's name, replacing spaces with underscores if need be.

If you look in the top right hand box, you'll soon find your Government Budget. It's a big sum, isn't it? Mine is $35,517,924,288,000.00. High amounts, hey?

But Samtonia, you say, We have our budgets. Now what?

WEll, we're going to figure out your defence budget. You all know how to multiply by percentages, right? Figure out a percentage of your budget you want for military.

Now, keeping that percentage in your head, repeat after me:
I AM STUPID AND KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BUDGETS.

There. That wasn't easy, was it? Isn't fun to be reminded of lack of knowledge about budgetary things, is it? Well too bad. It'll help you do what I say now. Forget the percentage. Forget it. Put it out of your mind.

Now, our new guidelines for military budgets.

NO MORE THEN 30% OF YOUR TOTAL BUDGET TO MILITARY!!!

That's right. No greater than 30%. 30% is even really high, higher then even North Korea's, who have the largest army in the world. But we're screwed up on Nationstates. So all you warmongers and paranoids out there can get huge amounts of troops. But anything over 30% would make your nation fall apart, due to lack of funds for everything else.

So there you have it. Your budget. Tune in next time to hear jokes about Ralph Nader! More info on budgets! And of course the ever-helpful Thought of the Day!

PS- Ignore the rest of the stuff on the website for now. WE'll cover it another day...

Ok, Unka Sammy, but how about if we want to set our own percentages? Or alter how the economy works?

What? I'm only spending 29% of my budget on military? I would have thought that by now it would have had to be 30%. I'll fix that right away, make no mistake...

Cheers for that very useful economics page... details I'd never have realised have now become THAT much clearer...

But it says that I spend 34% on defence?!?! I knew it was a priority, but I didn't know it was that overwhelming a priority.

1.972 billion, an all-consuming economy, with 34% on to defence, and information technology as a primary industry... maybe I should start throwing my weight around a little (j/k)...

But it says that I spend 34% on defence?!?! I knew it was a priority, but I didn't know it was that overwhelming a priority.

1.972 billion, an all-consuming economy, with 34% on to defence, and information technology as a primary industry

I have a similar situation, 34% Defence Budget, .5 Billion people, primary industry of Automobile Manufacturing and All-Consuming Economy.

Not bad, really :)

Your nation makes a certain amount of money. It is in a budget, which is rather high the richer you are. So what is your budget? I find the best way to figure out a rough sum is to go to: http://www.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?nation=Samtonia

Replaced Samtonia with Ascendotuum and get a Nation is not in specified region page. :confused:

I need some Help with War RPing and RPing overall can I get in?

Newbies join him, don't drive superpowers insane with your ignorance!

Not that I'm a superpower....

I might be interested, but so far all the "superpowers" that I've encountered have acted like three year old toddlers throwing their toys out of the playpen.

Where's the training on offer for the terminally arrogant?

I might be interested, but so far all the "superpowers" that I've encountered have acted like three year old toddlers throwing their toys out of the playpen.

Where's the training on offer for the terminally arrogant?

It does exist. I used to be a superpower. Many billions of people, huge armies, nuclear arsenals... but then I forgot to visit for a month. Now I'm stuck with a crappy 5 million nation. Quite a dose of humility really.

Replaced Samtonia with Ascendotuum and get a Nation is not in specified region page. :confused:

Does your region have more than 100 members? If so, that calculator won't be able to do the calculations.

The Empire of El-Sha'ladan would like to send a representative to attend this seminar.

[OOC: This is actually exactly what I've been looking for lately. Thank you!]

Replaced Samtonia with Ascendotuum and get a Nation is not in specified region page. :confused:

I think this is a spurious error because the calculator can only cope with regions of a certain size or smaller.

Unless you are a UN member with endorsements, hop over to a small region, use the calculator then hop bck.

Welcome to all who have just seen this! Now, I was going over my lesson and thinking about military budgets. Now, yes, I guess 30% can be very limited when compared to others. So I'm changing it up to 35%. That's right! I feel that with things the way they are, a military budget of 35% or less is acceptable. This will be changed for lesson Five accordingly.

Now, to all confused with that economy calculator, don't worry. Take everything there with a grain of salt. It only looks to your last few issues' decisions to formulate your budgetary spending. But it can be fun to compare other nations' to yours.

I thank everyone for all the support I've received so far and will finish up lesson six before the weekend begins!

Well, maybe not. I seem to have free time tomorrow, so the next lesson will be up by tomorrow evening!

Thanks for the info Sarzonia and Posiedon, I tried it in a small region and it worked, but I found another link (don't remember where:S) that will give me the xml script version for my original region. Crude looking but provides the stats.

I've been using it for a while... It makes me happy that my budget is larger than my GDP =)

Ok, I'm back to asking about those numbers and if the mathematically minded among us can somehow alter them. And there is the matter of different taxation systems, different economic models... is there a way to take this into account?

How about that several of the nations in Antarctica have adopted the same currency in an attempt to go all EU on commerce and trade between us? Wouldn't that have an averaging effect on the conversion rate of the Polar Crown to the USD?

It does exist. I used to be a superpower. Many billions of people, huge armies, nuclear arsenals... but then I forgot to visit for a month. Now I'm stuck with a crappy 5 million nation. Quite a dose of humility really.
You do know that you can ask the mods to revive your nation, right?

Lesson Six
Military Budgets (Continuation of Lesson Five)
So now you've got that large amount of money. Why, it's got more dollars in it than times Ralph Nader and Bob Dole have tried and failed to be elected president COMBINED. Now that's a big number.

So what should you do with that? Run out and buy every advanced tank you can? Maybe a Doujin or three to help on the waves. Or perhaps the finest aircraft available? Nope. You will do none of that. What we are going to do is more tedious but will help you out in the long run.

First, figure out a percentage you want to spend on support for your military.

Support is the fuel trucks, the ammo suppliers, the MPs who conduct traffic, the cooks, the base personnel, the maintenance of your weapons and vehicles- In short, everything that helps the military function. The better the support, the higher the morale and fighting capabilities of your soldiers.
So, since I think that it's important for your tanks to have gasoline and your soldiers to have bullets, my military spends 40% of its budget on support. I feel that around there is a good percentage. More would mean better supplied troops, (Sir, I think we have too much ammunition to carry!) and less would mean troops aren't supplied quite as well (So we're supposed to use our rifles as clubs?!). But that level can be up to you, within a few percentage points.

Okay, now we're set with those tedious details. On to the buying! Sorry kiddies, there's more to it. Now we've got to decide the percent of funds your different branches of military receive.

Back to my military. I've got 60% of my military budget left. Since my nation doesn't border too much ocean and I use my navy mostly to get my troops from one place to the other safely, (Ignoring the subs, which fulfill a different role entirely) I only spend 13% of my budget on the navy, which includes both ships and marines. Now, my airforce is a bit more important, but airforces always number less than the other branches and receive less funds. So 12% of my budget goes to the airforce. This leaves 35% of my military budget to go towards the army, which include engineers, special forces, armored divisions, and infantry divisions.

Now that I've got my budget, I shouldn't go over it for purchases or up-sizes for my army in one NS year. The ideas on this vary, but I feel it's every day to two days or so. So every day, I can only spend 35% of my military budget on ground forces.

This system is effective because you can adapt it as your nation changes. For example, if a war far-off is imminent, I can increase funding to my airforce so I can attack that country and decrease funding to my ground troops, since they're really not needed too much. Also, as your nations grows older, you can easily calculate new levels of spending. I tend to re-calculate every 500 million people or so, but younger nations can do it at ever 250 million or even at every 100 million.

So there you have it. Your military budget.

Tune in next time to learn all about buying things for your military! And of course, watch for the ever-helpful Thought of the Day!

Next lesson will be up before the weekend begins. I promise.

It does exist. I used to be a superpower. Many billions of people, huge armies, nuclear arsenals... but then I forgot to visit for a month. Now I'm stuck with a crappy 5 million nation. Quite a dose of humility really.
Go to moderation and they tell you how to get dead nations back.

Hey, Sam, you said the airforce was more important than your navy, yet you spend less on it. Was this a mistake or did you mean to spend less on it?

Read the whole sentence.

I only spend 13% of my budget on the navy, which includes both ships and marines. Now, my airforce is a bit more important, but airforces always number less than the other branches and receive less funds. So 12% of my budget goes to the airforce.

See why now?

Okay, lies came from my mouth a day ago. I'll get the next lesson done sometime this weekend, due to RL things beyond my control today. To everyone paying attention to this, sorry.

F*** this godd***ed forum! I hate it! Godd***ed thing timed out on me while I was typing up my post for lesson seven AND I can't correct errors in my posts while writing because the f***ing thing deletes letters when I try to re-type parts of my post. Due to this, which has pissed me off, the next lesson will be up sometime early this week, while I try to re-write it from memory.

I agree with your sentiments

There is a lesson in that as well, methinks.

F*** this godd***ed forum! I hate it! Godd***ed thing timed out on me while I was typing up my post for lesson seven AND I can't correct errors in my posts while writing because the f***ing thing deletes letters when I try to re-type parts of my post. Due to this, which has pissed me off, the next lesson will be up sometime early this week, while I try to re-write it from memory.
I completely agree. I lost a huge RP that way... twice! Now I have to go back to saving posts before I post them like in the dreaded old NS forums...

I agree with your sentiments

There is a lesson in that as well, methinks.

Yes.....Grumble....Now I guess I have to use Word before I do anything.....
And the lesson is almost done. In fact, by the time tomorrow is over, I'll have two lessons up for you all!

[QUOTE=Samtonia]because the f***ing thing deletes letters when I try to re-type parts of my post. QUOTE]

I've never had that problem. How about you try pressing the insert button when that happens and the problem should stop.

I also hate the no swearing and stuff policy because I've forgotten to asteric out words and I've lost really long posts.

Sorry all. I haven't really felt up to posting for a few days. To make a long story short, I was hit by a car while out biking. His fault, not mine. Luckily I'm okay, minus bruises, soreness, and a nasty case of road burn, although I did need a new bike. i promise that the next few lessons will be up in the next few days.

im kinda sucky with text based role playing. please help me.

Just read the lessons as I post them up. ASk any questions you have about topics of lessons or info contained therein. After all my lessons are up, everyone enreolled in the class will be able to participate in a war rp with me as a behind-the scenes referee.

Bump for your viewing pleasure!

Bump for me being lazy. School ate up time and I really haven't been able to update. I will, however, one day. Then you'll get three or four lessons at once to make up for all the waiting!