NationStates Jolt Archive

Of late, I've noticed an ever-increasing number of Storefronts, and they're all flogging exactly the same thing: US or Russian equipment, or UberSpaceDreadnoughts.

I have a radical new proposal for the Forum, and RPing in general:

How about we simply assume that all new Nations just have enough M-16s/AK-47s/MiG-21s/F-16s/Abrams Tanks/T-94 Tanks etc to equip their militaries with?

This would cut down on un-necessary Storefronts selling the same stuff as everyone else, and allow us to get on with RPing and worrying about International Incidents, instead of Numberwanking.

The usual Godmoding rules would still apply, of course.

And on that note, I have a second proposal:

A Moratorium on Storefronts selling Modern Equipment (ie 1975-present day) that isn't a substantially original design

In other words, no more storefronts selling M-16s, AK-47s, MiGs, F-16s, Abrams Tanks, and so on- either come up with something original, or just don't bother, OK?

Just assume that your Arms Industry is supplying various un-named small countries anyway so your Economy doesn't suffer noticeably, and put the time into developing good RPs or original products...

Just my thoughts, so now I'll open it up to the forum...

Takes cover from expected insults and flaming

I saw some alternate forum for posting stores on...Ill see if I can find the adress, its better than them being here, 'Like, totaly fer sure'.

Nice idea but I dont see how you would enforce it.

OOC: To tell you the truth I don't like the idea of all "Original Equipment". If i'm RP'n a war and someone pulls a custom developed weapon out and it doesn't closely match something existing currently then I ignore them and don't RP with them.

OOC: RL equipment was designed for a very different world than NS, and it was developed with much smaller budgets than our nations have. In fact every nation with economy of thriving or above should really have it's own arms industry, those below should buy from storefronts.

-Official Ratheian Government Response-

We make our own weapons dammit!

I agree with Fate and Honor, I don't want to be fighting Mechwarriors, and i feel the stores are a way to see if your enemy really has what he says he has. If he has 4,000,000 tanks, i want to know where he got them. It cuts down on God mode type militarys better than anything else.

Thats why I never buy weapons from storefronts that are already made in RL life. Why should I pay more money for XM8 or AK-47 when I can say I make my own. I only buy original weapons and only if they are good.

I build custom(based strictly on modern-or even dated technology).
My link is in my sig, I have one store front for all my items(of site) my on site store ront just contains links.
I am tired of seeing these n00bs put up a storefront for one tank, then a new one for one plane, then a new one for one rifle, until one person has 3 or 4 or 5 storefronts.
I just ignore most, I do my store because I have fun with it, and some people really like my ideas. plus I also run a sweepstakes out of it.
Whatever, I cant agree to strongly with you Royce because I run a storefront, but I do agree with you.

It does actually cost money to make these things, and it actually costs more than buying them (something everyone seems to igore). The only advantage is that you have a permanent supply.

If you want to get technical no nation owns a weapons maker, except maybe NORINCO, so it makes more sense that your nation should have to buy all of it's weapons. You can't just pop up with weapons, you have to buy them.

Hmm... have you heard of any of the following nations?

United States of America
United Kingodm
France
Germany
Italy
India
Russia
Japan
China

If you want to get technical no nation owns a weapons maker, except maybe NORINCO, so it makes more sense that your nation should have to buy all of it's weapons. You can't just pop up with weapons, you have to buy them.
I dont follow why NO NATION owns a weapons maker? except Norinco.
Why?

If you want to get technical no nation owns a weapons maker, except maybe NORINCO, so it makes more sense that your nation should have to buy all of it's weapons. You can't just pop up with weapons, you have to buy them.
Or make them yourself. Look at my nation's profile:

The Hellenistic Empire of Nikolaos The Great is a massive, devout nation, renowned for its punitive income tax rates. Its hard-nosed, hard-working population of 1.363 billion are either ruled by a small, efficient government or a conglomerate of multinational corporations; it's difficult to tell which.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, pro-business government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defence, and Education. The average income tax rate is 100%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Uranium Mining industry, followed by Arms Manufacturing and Information Technology.

Bizarre-looking creatures called 'dolphindogs' dominate wildlife preserves, the country is preparing for war, army rations are served on silver platters, and the people elect the Supreme Court justices directly. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Nikolaos The Great's national animal is the dolphin, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its currency is the drachma.

So technically I make my own weapons.

[OOC: Using real-world armaments and military assets with their real-world names is just damned lazy. 'nuff said.

Oh, and you don't have to have Arms Manufacturing as your primary industry or as a primary industry in order to actually produce your own weapons. If you spend alot on the military, then you could easily have the military produce their own weapons - and not sell them. In days gone by, militaries did function that way; it's only in the commercialized modern world that the vast majority of military developments are contracted out to civilian corporations.]

We make our weapons. Most of the small-arms is designed and manufactured by Torsg Federal Arms a state owned company with history dating back to 1800s. Heavy weapons and such are built by contracting independent companies such as Torsg Machinery. Vehicles and tanks are made by TorsgMobil a massive automobile company, one of our major industries.

OOC:
Almost all of our designs are original with real-life twist on them.
Some examples:

TA-95 (http://koti.mbnet.fi/tissi/ns/ta95.jpg)
Action: gas operated, rotating bolt
Caliber: 9x19mm
Manufacturer: Torsg Federal Arms
Overall length: 820 mm
Barrel length: 250 mm
Weigth: 2.9 kg / 3.9 loaded
Rate of fire: 800 rounds per minute
Magazine capacity: 50 rounds drum / 35 rounds curved box magazine
Effective range of fire: 500 m

TA-04 (http://koti.mbnet.fi/tissi/ns/ta04.jpg)
Action: gas operated, rotating bolt
Caliber: 7.62x51mm
Manufacturer: Torsg Federal Arms
Overall length: 1200 mm
Barrel length: 500 mm
Weigth: 3.8 kg / 4.2 loaded
Rate of fire: 600 rounds per minute
Magazine capacity: 30 rounds
Effective range of fire: 700 m

Dailey and I have been trying to come u with original designs, we have some pretty cool tanks. Find the TBA Storefront.

While I don't sell strictly all-original content, I tend to just use pictures of real-world weapons and then... shall we say... add features to them in the description? See my tiny (about 3 entries) small-arms storefront, especially the one at the top - the RL weapon pictured can't do half the things the weapon I sell can, but it just looks cool so I theived it :p.

I've also sold the occasional real-life plane with slight adaptions I've added to it, but the only plane I've really advertised for sale was my Ry-19, which is an original design. The trouble is, not everyone is willing to dream up new ideas for gun mechanisms or hash together line-drawings of aircraft designs - it might be bad RP form, but most people just want to find cool pictures of F-16s and copy the stats from FAS.org to sell for a quick buck in a storefront.

We can assume as many people as they want can sell old MiGs to anyone willing to buy them - they're just as widespread in real life - but with modern aircraft for modern nations the lack of originality is annoying - how many wars have there been on here where it's been Abrams vs Abrams, F-22 vs F-22, soldiers with M-16s vs soldiers with M-16s? It's just one of those poor-form RP problems, like weapons never jamming and tactics never failing. It's just something you have to live with, and hope they learn.

Also, I'd like to add to the list of gripes... people who sell RL equipment and the only original feature is a name-change. That's just a poor attempt, in my book.

By "Original Equipment" I dont mean MechWarriors or uber-LMGs with Laser Signts and Caseless Rounds etc, I mean things like Roycelandia's Self-Loading Lee-Enfield, or perhaps the Pulse Rifle from "Aliens".

In other words, it doesn't have to be completely "original", it just has to be something a bit more creative than the current crop of "buy my AK-47s! teyh rok!!!11!"

In other words, it doesn't have to be completely "original", it just has to be something a bit more creative than the current crop of "buy my AK-47s! teyh rok!!!11!"
heh. or something better than;

Buy my Superultramegarifle-3000!!!

<picture of M16>

$12,000 each!!! OMGWTFBBQ!!!

That's the one!

I'm sure more people have thoughts on this... let's hear them!