NationStates Jolt Archive

The International Incidents Consolidation Sticky

Guide To Nationstates (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=357975)
The Guide to Nationstates is a good link for those of you that are new to NS. It has examples of good/bad RP'ing, some of the dilemma's of RP'ing, as well as some information threads.

What Godmoding Is (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367578)
If you're unsure of what godmoding is, and what you need to do to avoid it, check this thread out. Make sure you know what is accepted or not.

Guide To Roleplaying Terrorism v2.0 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=366018)
This guide is for those of you out there that are interested in RP'ing as a terrorist nation/group/organization. It can give you some great ideas on how to start off.

FYI: What you should NOT post in International Incidents (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=294193)
Here's a guide for those of you, on what you shouldn't post in International Incidents. Check it out.

NationStates Role Play and Ignoring (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=282993)
This is a good thread when it comes to RP'ing in II and the aspect of ignoring someone else.

List of National Leaders (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=412266)
If you're interested in who the leader is of a nation, check out this link and find out.



IRC Chat for Roleplayers!
As many of you are doubtless aware, there exist NationStates chatrooms, particularly on irc.esper.net. IRC and other live chats help work out many kinks in RPs, helps coordinate with other players, and helps smooth things along. IM works, too, but IRC has proven very useful to both players and mods.

For those of you unfamiliar with IRC, but wishing to get in on the action:
1.) Download an IRC client (chat program), e.g., mIRC, Trillian, GAIM, X-Chat Aqua, etc.

The most active chat server for Nationstates-related discussion is irc.esper.net. You'd select that as your server (under File-Options for mIRC, and in account setup for GAIM; for GAIM, make sure to select IRC protocol for that account) and for port, put 6667 (5555, 6666, 6667, 6668, 6669, 7000 all allegedly work.)

Type /join #internationalincidents in the prompt to join the International Incidents chatroom. Yes, I know it's not particularly active compared to the #nationstates channel most of the time, but if you stick around, it might become as active.

Other channels have included #nationstates, #nationstates_general, #nationstates_politics, #nationstates_technical, #themodcave(for when you need to get ahold of a NationStates mod in a hurry), #nationstates_outcasts, #nationstates_rp, #internationalincidents, #nationstates_2, #sport, and #ns.

I'm also informed that a #nationstates channel exists on genesis.flashwirenetwork.net.

Important Links
New to NS? Check out these next links. They can help you get familiar with the way of things in NationStates.
Euro's Consolidated Help Thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=414152)
AMF's Guide to Story Roles and Angles (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367824)

Please add all comments and suggestions to

International Incidents Stickies: Input Requested (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=413990)

Thank you

This is just a collection of threads that I think are particularly helpful for players here to create a more enjoyable round of RPing. Please note that this is just my take on some of the threads I consider particularly helpful in both the NationStates and International Incidents forums. I'm sure I'm going to miss a LOT of them or some of them are already stickied. If there are other threads that are particularly helpful, I welcome links to them.

New to NS? Read this (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=398818) (NationStates orientation by Kaukolastan).

New to RP? Check this out (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=406680) (Roleplaying Tips and Suggestions by Euroslavia).

A Brief Discussion of WMD in NS (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416536) by The Evil Overlord.

Want to find out why people play NS? (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=412835) a collection of posts compiled by Euroslavia.

Collection of all NS Earths (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=390379) by Euroslavia

Joint Treatise on the Creation of Alliances (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=415341) by Euroslavia and Sarzonia

Suggestions that won't be added (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=417989) by Guffingford. That list will save you the trouble of wasting bandwidth or time posting it.

War and Equipment

The Ultimate Guide to Warfare (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416823) by Automagfreek

Collection of Strategy Threads (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=403383) by Euroslavia (the Sticky Master and one great RPer, helpful and friendly guy).

Guide to Terrorism (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=366018) by Jaxusism. He has done an excellent job in RPing a terrorist movement and has followed NS conventions about contacting a player and working out the details of a terror attack before posting one. He's also done some very helpful threads in addition to this one.

[un]Official Guide to War on NationStates (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380336) by Kordo.

Axis of Evil/Axis of Love (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=395965) by Guffingford. This is the one such list that's unbiased as far as I can tell.

Guide to NS Strategy (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=403138) also by Guffingford.

What Logistics Is (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=275828) by The Evil Overlord

Logistics: War and Peace (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=393153) by The Macabees

How To Defeat A Numerically Superior Enemy (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=398617) by the Macabees

A Joint Treatise on Naval Strategy (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=412713) by Sarzonia and Praetonia

Creatively and Effectively Using an Air Force (http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=415156) by Geisenfried

Guide to MT Space RP (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416572) by Whittier-

Quick and Nasty Guide To Fighting In Built Up Areas (FIBUA) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=403397) by Isselmere

Dictionary of Military Terms/Jargon (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=286344) again by The Evil Overlord

Economy, Militaries and Invasions - More Things To Know (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=297064) by Clan Smoke Jaguar

Things You Should Know About Aircraft (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=322078) also by Clan Smoke Jaguar

Some Info On Naval Vessels (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=292413) again by Clan Smoke Jaguar

Some Things You Should Know About Tanks (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=288671), once again by Clan Smoke Jaguar

Some Info On Military Equipment Pricing (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=287768), yet again by Clan Smoke Jaguar

Naval Landings (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367974) by The Island of Rose

Official List of Terrorist Organizations (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=388585) by The Lightning Star

The Art of Losing (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416665) by Dracun imperium. Because someone has to lose sometime.

Economics

First, a detailed breakdown by Euroslavia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=408438).

Pipian Budgetary Calculator (http://www.pipian.com/stuffforchat/gdpcalc.php?nation=your nation name) (Note: Replace your nation name with your nation's name to get your results)

Thrace-Taliteann Budgetary Calculator (http://members.fortunecity.com/thracetailteann/html/gnp.html)

Colony Calculator (http://twr.1colony.com/ver8/calc8.0.html) (I'm not sure of the name).

ThirdGeek Budgetary Calculator (http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com).[/color]

National Information

Photos of National Leaders (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=411099) by Roach-Busters

List of World Factbooks (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=358763) by Kryozerkia

List of National Leaders (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=412266) by The Macabees

List of Currencies (And Their Power Against The USD) (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=355749) by Hogsweat

List of National Capitals (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=351543) also by Kryozerkia

Members of National Governments (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=348708) by Jonothana

List of Alliances (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=275121) by Kelanthia

Imports/Exports (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=390671) by Praetonia

Guide to Trade on NS (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=426062) by Euroslavia

Place to post National Constitutions (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=390744) by SovietRepublicofRussia

Government/Economic Categories/Jolt Member Categories (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=392208) by Euroslavia (the Sticky Master!)

Storefronts and Miscellany

List of Storefronts (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=526190) by Kampfers

How To Build a Better Storefront (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=353255) by Sarzonia

Proposed Code of Conduct for Storefronts (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=359981) again by Sarzonia

Want Respect? Find Out How To Earn It (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=353535) yet again by Sarzonia.

Ten Basic Rules for Naval Roleplay and Ship Design (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=402365) by The Freethinkers.

Santa Barbara's Great Big Guide to Designing Spaceships (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=307499) Future Tech? Look here!

Pacitalia's guide to building factbooks (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=412728). His format has been used as a template by several players.

Suggested Guide for Soft/Hard Ignores (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=407062), once again by Sarzonia.

Suggestion for dealing with "enemies" (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416668), also by Sarzonia.

NOTE: Please continue all discussion of this post at this thread (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=366979). Thank you for your cooperation.

OOC: I have noticed that there isn't a really thorough guide to warfare, so being II's resident warmonger ( ;) ), I've decided to go through it step by step for not only the new RPers, but everyone.

Alrighty, here it is, reposted in the Consolidation sticky per Frisbeeteria's request......

Automagfreek presents,

The Ultimate Guide to WAR


+++++++++++++++++

Q: Um...where is the 'declare war' button?

A: There isn't. War on NationStates is entirely role play, there is no actual game engine that makes war. What is that you may ask? Make believe story telling, plain and simple. NS war can be fought in a few ways, and many NSers have their own style they like to use:

1. War based on story

There are some RPers out there (myself included) who choose to fight wars based almost entirely on story, IE: the sights, the sounds, the taste, and the touch of battle. There are the people who sometimes enjoy going into great length to paint the picture of a battle scene, and technical stats of weapons are not a big concern.

2. War based on tech/stats

There are other RPers who enjoy fighting wars based on technical specs and stats of their weapons, and sometimes enjoy going into great detail to make sure their weapons (and how they employ them) are as realistic as possible. Focus on the story is still there, but tactics and stats are of more importance to these RPers.

Which style is the best style? That is for you to decide. Not everyone plays on the same level (IE: Modern tech, future tech, fantasy, and so on), so it is important to 'scout out' a potential opponent before fighting them, this way you know what you will be facing.

Q: Ok, I want to go to war! What do I do?

A: Well, first off you have to get a few things down before you rush off to battle. Some things you should think of before you attack another nation are:


Why are you attacking that nation? What did they do to warrant a strike by your military?
Do you have any sort of military to even strike anybody?

Let us examine the first question, why are you attacking?

GOOD REASONS FOR WAR

1. Attack on your nation/territory

Naturally this is grounds for war. If a hostile fleet moves into your waters or if (for example) a missile is launched or bombs are dropped into your territory, you may want to use diplomatic pressure or some other means first. This will may sway others to your banner if you make an honest effort to avoid war.

However, depending on how you want to play you may handle it differently. Some people would make an effort to avoid a potentially costly and devastating war, others would jump at the first chance to deal a little death. In the end it's all up to how you play.

2. Attack on an ally

This is cause #2 for war. Because of vast friendships on NationStates, war for this reason is very common. As an ally of a nation, you may feel obligated to defend them, and that is understandable. But you do not need to make all of your allies business your business. You have a nation to run as well, you can't alway rush off to protect your 4 dozen allies (or how ever many you have). But that's not to say you can't aid your allies. Sending weapons, ammo, money, equipment can be just as effective as sending your own soldiers.

Political and moral support can acutally avert an entire war, and I should know because I've done it myself. Experiment and find a style that suits you.


3. Human rights violations

This is International Incident's favorite past time. Mass murder, genocide, enslavement, and other such things all fall under this category. While many nations in I.I love to frequently abuse human rights, there are still a few 'good' nations out there who are willing to risk it all to defend the innocent.

Declaring war for a human rights violation is a delicate thing. Most of the time with enough political pressure and some light to moderate threat of force, you can usually stop human rights violations.

4. WMD possession

This reason is slightly exaggerated. A nation has the right to possess WMD, and use it when neccessary. BUT, if they go around gassing neighbor nations for giggles, then there may be a problem (but again, DIPLOMACY FIRST). Simply possessing, buying, or selling WMD is not sufficiant grounds for war...BUT abuse may be. Each situation is unique.



BAD REASONS FOR WAR

1. His leader insulted mine!

So what? If you rush off to war for this reason, you need to grow a thicker skin. As absurd as it seems, I've seen war erupt for this reason. Insults happen, don't take it personally. Remember "sticks and stones"? Declaring war because challenges are being issued is one thing, but declaring war because his leader called your leader a mean name is another.

2. I want his land!

Being imperialistic is generally frowned upon. Unless justified and well RPed, simply "wanting" somebody else's territory will generally land you in the Smackdown Hotel. Frequent imperialism may also be viewed as warmongering.

Warmongering: One who advocates or attempts to stir up war.

3. My allies are going to war!

Good for him, but unless it directly involves you, don't. Remember, you have a nation to look after as well, you can't constantly bend to the will of an ally. His reasons for war may be legit, but that dosen't mean you need to butt in and 'dogpile' some nation he's fighting against. There have been countless 'dogpiles' in I.I, and it is usually leads to OOC hard feelings...which leads to the inevitable flame war.

4. I feel like it, because I'm bored

Again, generally considered idiodic, and warmongering. UNLESS of couse it's a couple of friends RPing out a conflict for fun, in which case, you shouldn't interfere. If two people can come together OOCly and work out an IC conflict, then this reason is acceptable. BUT declaring war on a random nation just for the hell of it is generally considered not acceptable.

5. I want to rule teh world!!!1111Shift+1

For one thing, you can't. NationStates has over 130,000 nations. Do you think your military, even your ENTIRE population for that matter, can conquer that many people? It is entirely impossible.

Also, you can't declare war on the Jolt forums, the moderators or the UN*, sorry.

* The UN is a game function, and is NOT an actual organized alliance.

6. He said my mom was fat!

NEVER, EVER DECLARE WAR FOR OOC (Out Of Character) REASONS!!! I don't care if your friend was being a jerk at school, that's not a good reason to declare war, forget about it. This is one of the things that kills good war RPs, when Out Of Character and In Character feels mix together.

If you plan on being taken seriously in NS, DO NOT allow IC and OOC feelings and attitudes to cross.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Q: Ok, I have a good and valid reason to declare war, what do I do now?

A:: This is where it gets tricky. I will walk through this as best as I can.


Create a thread stating your case OR moving your troops into position. This depends on whether or not you want your attack to be a 'surprise' or not. Good writing is essential to your cause, not just 'OMFG LOLZ!!11 I declare war on j00!' :mp5:
In this thread, describe what you will be using to engage your enemy and where it is going. It is GODMODDING (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367578) to have your troops magically appear inside your opponents territory.
When you actually begin to fight, make sure you take your fair share of losses. Nobody wants to 'lose' to anyone, but if your troops are being pounded by artillery, you're probably going to lose more than 1.
Tactics are a big help no matter if you choose to RP using just story or tech elements. If your troops are being slaughtered by the enemy, try falling back and pulling up reserves. Although NationStates is NOT real life by any means, real life logic and tactics can help you in a pinch.
If it looks like you will end up victorious, begin to close out the RP. If your foe wants to surrender, begin to work out the exact terms. If your opponent wants to fight to the death, then continue fighting until nobody is left to stand in your way.
Once you have won, you may either pull out or occupy your newly conquered territory. Again, some sort of collaboration with the other party helps a lot, because there is NO such thing as 'losing' in NationStates, and nobody wants to be occupied by a foreign army forever.
If it looks like you might lose, you need to decide how far you are willing to go before you finally call it a day. Do you want to surrender early and spare extreme damage to your country and economy, or do you want to fight to the death? This, again, is your choice.

Here are some example posts on how to RP a war.

Pantera:

As the first wave of Reavers hit the shoreline, the smoking forests beyond came alive with machine gun fire. The turrets aboard the transports began a thick covering fire, burt were forced to cease as their men gained the top of the bank and began the scramble through briar and branch.

An artillery shell slammed into the bank just as the Evenstar's transport slid onto the sand. The jolt lifted one side of his transport and tossed it a full quarter turn. Men screamed and cursed as the doors slid open and allowed a gushing torrent of water into the hold. Dayne himself screamed for them to abandon ship and dove headlong into the sea. The water was deep and the weight of armor, rifle and sword pulled many down, but a fair number reached the shore, among them the Evenstar, soaked but raging for blood.

At least two thousand of his men were ashore, half of them already plunging into the shadows of the forest. Bursts of firing sliced down many of the advancing force, but soon these halted, and the beachead was gained.

Firing a flair to rally his force, the Evenstar made to push deeper into the forest. Sending out seven advance parties of sixty men each, he formed his men up into a marching vanguard, and set off into a four mile stretch of forest, before tree and bush thinned into the plain of the island interior.

Two Hours Later...

By the time the Evenstar's force emerged fromt he forests, the guerilla raiding of the rebels had taken its toll, and he was raging mad. Before him stretched the plain of Teralus, a large black streak that was the highway snaking through the green of the grasses, a few thickets dotting the landscape that doubtless held a unit of rebels or a mortar crew.

Some six miles distant was the airport. Even from this distance he could see a few planes landing and taking off, refuelling after a patrol. However, none seemed to be eager to attack them, obviously afraid to lose their only air power.

The thought of aircraft took his thoughts to Azrael, and his fortunes with the AA installations. So far he had fierce resistance, but not the full force of the rebels. Five hundred of his men were dead, at least twice that on the rebel side. Hopefully Azrael was doing as well. He ached to call in his bombers aboard the carriers, sitting along the shoreline and waiting for his order. However, he would wait for word from Azrael. Radio silence would be preserved until the boy's confirmation that the installations had been destroyed or taken.


Automagfreek:

The sound of battle could be heard at Azrael's LZ, and he noticed that Reaver entrenchments along the shore began shifting somewhat towards the initial fighting. This ended however as the covering fire from the Panteran fleets rained in. Azrael looked nervous, but the men around him helped calm his nerves. Simply looking at their stone cold faces was assurance enough that he would be just fine. Alright men, stay with me. We need to take this beach and kill their AA batteries. Let's squash these vermin once and for all. Azrael shifted to the head of the transport, and as the gate fell Azrael rushed out with his gun blazing. He immediatly took a round to his left arm and went down as the Reavers and his Sentinel entourage stormed the beach. Azrael was disappointed in himself, for he had been hit before the battle even began. He felt his face turning red, and his jet black eyes began steaming. He stood back to his feet and charged as fast as his body could carry him. The Reavers hit the beach with great ferocity and began rapidly pouring he heat onto the heathens entrenched near the beach. A nearby explosion forced Azrael into a trench alonside a few of his Sentinels and a massive gang of Reavers.

He looked to his left and noticed that his two Death Dealers were standing straight up firing their .50 cals like madmen, and flinching not when they took hits. 7 hits he counted on one of the Death Dealers, but still the creature did not flinch. Azrael stood to his feet and threw a grenade in front of him and then ordered his Reavers out of the trenches. They gave him a questioning eye, but Azrael did not have time to wait. Climbing above the trenchline Azrael raced towards the enemy's line, firing his weapon in all directions. The Reavers that followed him were brutally cut down by the hail of gunfire, but followed Azrael regardless.

The landing was somewhat successful, although the landing Reavers took many losses, and hundreds of bodies lay lifeless on the sands. Azrael had been too headstrong, and now his forces were depleated. His Death Dealers were fine, and 3 of his Sentinels lay dead. The Sentinel Stalkers were fine though, although one of them took a small hit to the leg. Azrael dove into another trench and found an enemy Reaver struggling to clear his jammed weapon. Azrael fired a 3 round burst into his side, but then discovered that his weapon was empty. He discarded it and drew out his sword, sending it's sharp blade into the chest of the Reaver. He howled in pain as Azrael contined stabbing and chopping until the screams subsided, but he remained unrelenting. Azrael screamed and howled as he continued to chop and dice the now obviously dead Reaver, and it took 4 of his own Sentinels to pry his off the carcass. Nothing but chooped meat and broken bone lay in a very bloody pile, and Azrael himself was quite drenched int he crimson fluid as well.

He gathered himself, not taking time to wipe the massive amount of blood that covered his entire body. Form up, we need to hit their AA installations fast. The Reavers were unsure what to think of the lad.

Pantera:

From a small rise a mile or so off, the Evenstar watched a fist of his Reavers swarm a dense thicket of trees, a few tumbling and not rising as a stream of small arms fire bursts from inside the thicket. The mortar crew hidden in the trees had been giving him grief the past hour, and he had finally ordered it taken.

When his Reavers fired a flare to show they had successfully swept the thicket, the Evenstar ordered his men forward. Half an hour before he had been blessed and had overtaken a small convoy enroute to Dregon, the main city of the island. Along with several tankers of fuel, the Evenstar siezed three mobile SAM sites and a large flatbed trailer filled with mortars, making a rough, lumbering mobile platform. This he destroyed, but he brought the mobile SAM's along with him, and these kept the enemy aircraft at a safe distance.

Still, though, he was forced to wait on his airstrike.

What the fuck is that welp up to?

Automagfreek:

Azrael was stunned after receiving the gunshot wound, but he had somehow managed to lead his battered unit across the beach head. Although the skirmish had been won, the battle was far from over. He glanced down at his watch and noticted that he was running dreadfully late, and Dayne was probably expecting the damn fight to be over by now. Azrael raised his bloodied sword above his head and rallied his Reavers to his side. His face was veiled in a deep crimson mask, and his jet black eyes steamed as he looked about his ranks and examined his numbers. At least a thousand were dead, and probably half of that were wounded. Regardless of taking heavily losses and undaunted by the chirps of sporadic gunfire, Azrael captured some nearby artillery pieces and ordered the Reavers to begin shelling the location of the AA guns. The bores of the guns exploded to life, and Azrael gathered his battle torn forces and pressed on. The AA site was near, and smoke began rising from it's location as the Reaver's new toys began unleashing upon the heathen defenders.

Along the road Azrael encountered several small pockets of heavy machine guns supported by pairs of snipers. Azrael knew the best strategy was to simply pour on more heat and continue on, and that he did. As more of his Reavers were cut down by enemy fire, Azrael continued his perilous advance. The AA pieces were now in sight, and Azrael radioed new coordinated to the Reaver artillery crews. Under suppressive fire the Reavers decended onto the defensive positions around the AA as raging waves decend on a beach. Azrael's Reavers began raining mortar and MGL (multiple grenade launcher) fire on the nearest defensive pockets, then began gradually walking the fire backwards. With the artillery pieces firing at the rear of the entrenched position and Azrael hitting the front, soon the center of the enemy Reaver defenses would be surrounded by lots and lots of dead bodies.

The raid went successful, and in typical AMF and Panteran fashion, the assault was finalized by a massive charge. Azrael employed a Sentinel battle tactic whereas three quarters of the rushing force pass their ammo to their back men, and the back men would lay down massive covering fire. With artillery and mortar support, the enemy Reavers had no choice but to hide their heads, and upon doing so Azrael ordered a charge. With his Reavers charging onward with intense fire support from their back men, the Reavers were able to swiftly and somewhat easily overrun the enemy's position.....in mere minutes. Azrael then wasted no time in placing satchel charges on the AA site and detonating them, a sign to Dayne that his task was accomplished.




Q: Thanks, are there any alternatives to war?

A: Of course.

OPTIONS IN PLACE OF WAR


Diplomacy: The art or practice of conducting international relations, as in negotiating alliances, treaties, and agreements... Tact and skill in dealing with people.
Compromise: A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions. (I'll back down if you will)
Sanctions: A coercive measure adopted usually by several nations acting together against a nation violating international law. (If you launch another nuke, there will be problems)
Compliance: (Alright, I'll cut back on my VX, just don't attack me)
Threat of force: (Look, if you invade, the ABCDE Alliance will step in. )
Sever all ties with the nation (You know what, I'm not trading nor interacting with your naton again. Good Day.)

CONSEQUENCES OF WAR

War can have serious consequences, which for the most part are generally ignored on NS. Every time you attack someone, you make yourself more vulnerable to attack yourself. If you fight frequently, your troops are going to get tired and disgruntled. If your economy is bad, it's probably going to get worse.

Face it, setbacks do happen, and frequent or long wars can be a strain on any nation. I don't care if you're the most powerful one around, if you attack a different nation every single day, your country is going down the gutter.

Warring with certain nations can also have different consequences. Fighting a nation that's larger, better equiped, more experienced, etc, may effect your troops morale. Also, remember that defenders tend to fight harder, for it is their homes they are fighting for (Although a lot of the time civilians tend to leave areas that are about to be attacked. Not everyone is willing to die). Also, remember that supplies are crucial to your war effort.

You don't honestly think your tanks can drive without gas, do you? Can your troops shoot without ammo? Can your trucks drive with no tires? ALOT of people forget about these things, so you need to rememeber that supplies are critical. If your supply lines are attacked, then your troops will be in trouble. Granted, you don't really have to RP EVERY single supply you send, but every once in awhile casually indicate that more shipments to your bases and or troops are being made.

Also, war can have diplomatic consequences as well. Some nations may frown upon you for frequently choosing the sword over the pen. Expect this to happen if you go off to war too frequently and for the wrong reasons.

++++++++++++++

If anyone has anything to add to this thread, feel free. I hope this can become a valuable resource for anyone who wants to get the basics of war down.

Happy hunting,

-AMF-

PLEASE CONTINUE ALL DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS TOPIC HERE: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416823

How To Make a Great Factbook!
By The Capitalist Republic of Pacitalia!

Table of Contents
A. Introduction
B. "Must-have" Information
1. Geography
2. Economy
3. History
4. Military
5. Government Structure and Political Structure
6. People and Population
7. Communications
C. Other Information You Can Include
D. Factbook Setup and Formatting
1. Keep it simple
2. Keep it together
3. Keep it in a safe place
4. Keep it organised
5. Make it nice, but keep it clean
6. Formatting
a. Headers
b. Subheaders
c. Individual Facts (Tertiary Headers)
d. Alignment
e. Fonts and Weight

E. Add-In "Widgets"
F. Finish it off!
G. In conclusion...
H. Post Factbook Stuff

----------------------------------------------------------

A. Introduction
In this topic, I'll show you how to make the factbook of your dreams. We can do this, keeping it simple and clean to the average eye, but packed full of everything people want to know about your great nation! Everyone should have a factbook - whether for their own use or intended for others to use, they're extremely helpful, especially for military or commerce related roleplays, or just general need for lookup of information.

And you know what they say, after a Gmail account and an iPod, a factbook on NationStates is third on the must-have list of tech magazines everywhere!* ;)

* - Not really, but it's fun to dream.

B. "Must-Have" Information
First in a factbook, you must have information to be formatted. That's what a factbook is all about, of course: displaying information about your country in an organised, easy-to-read format so that other nations can learn about you in an easily-accessible resource.

1. Geography
You can/should include in geography at least 5-7 of the following: relative location, absolute location (coordinates in latitude and longitude), area, comparative area, bordering nations, coastline length in kilometres, maritime claims, terrain, climate, elevation extremes, natural resources, land use, irrigated land, natural hazards, environmental issues and current environmental agreements.

2. Economy
You can/should include in economy at least 10 of the following: a paragraphical overview of your economic structure, gross domestic product, GDP per capita, population below poverty line, unemployment rate, income tax rate, household income consumption % share, inflation rate, labour force, budget, industries, electricity (production, consumption, exports, imports), natural gas (production, consumption, exports, imports), oil (production, consumption, exports, imports), agricultural products, exports (value, commodities, partners), imports (value, commodities, partners), internal or external debt, economic aid, currency, currency code, exchange rates, fiscal year.

3. History
Make sure your history is concise but don't write a book. Always ensure that you have covered to at least a minor extent all the major events that have occurred in your nation since its inception, or even beforehand if you like. This is the big killer for spelling and grammar, but easy for formatting.

4. Military
You can/should include in military at least 5 of the following: branches, manpower, available manpower, percentage of total population, expenditures (and as part of your GDP), allies, annual nationals reaching military age, manpower fit for military service.

5. Government and Political Structure
You can/should include in this category at least 7 of the following: country name (long form, short form, common reference), government type (republic? monarchy? dictatorship?), capital city (cities), administrative divisions (provinces, states, territories), major cities, date of independence or founding, national holiday, constitution, legal system, suffrage, executive branch structure and figures, judicial branch, legislative branch, political parties, international organisation participation, UN description category (check your nation's main page on nationstates.net for that).

6. People and Population
You can/should include in "people and population" at least 5-7 of the following: total population, age structure, median age, population growth rate, net migration rate, life expectancy at birth, nationality, ethnic groups, religions, languages and literacy.

7. Communications
You can/should include in communications at least 5 of the following: country code, number of televisions, number of telephones, number of cell phones, number of radios, radio broadcast stations, major radio broadcasters, television broadcasters, internet hosts, internet service providers, internet users, web TLD (domain extension).

C. Other Information You Can Include
Really, anything you think pertains to your nation and would be interesting and a positive addition to your factbook can be added. Unnecessary things like how many clowns live in your nation should be excluded from your factbook to leave room for the more frequently looked up facts.

D. Factbook Setup and Formatting
The most important thing to remember about factbooks is that they are yours. You have the power to make them personal to your style, your feeling, what you want in there, but remember, there are guidelines, general forum guidelines for sizing, emoticon use and language that you still have to follow.

1. Keep it simple
Nobody will visit your factbook more than once if they can't read what you have. Make sure that if you have lots of information in your factbook, you have made it very well organised and neat. (See Section D4 for more)

2. Keep it together
If your factbook is shorter than, say, 200 lines, keep it all in one post. If it's longer, like mine (link (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=362499)) for instance, try to separate into bunched posts. If you keep a factbook the length of mine in one post, it will take a while to save changes to your post, and that can become tedious, especially on smaller, one-letter or one-line edits.

3. Keep it in a safe place
It is especially important, just like on a regular post, to make a backup copy of your factbook in Notepad, just in case Jolt crashed and it lost your post. Just think how you would feel after all that work, and then seeing it flushed down the toilet by a server error. Save your work. Constantly.

4. Keep it organised
Don't start putting things in randomly. Before you begin to input information into the posting window, it's better to put your text and headers in notepad, then copy and paste into the Jolt posting window and format all the text and headers there. Make sure all information that is relevant to each other goes together. For example, geographically related stuff should all go in a category of your factbook named something along the lines of "Geography". Things like "land area", "natural disasters", "water area" could go in that category. Of course, economic stuff should all go in an economic category, history in a history category and military in a military category. A good example of formatting to follow is the CIA World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html).

5. Make it nice, but keep it clean
Now that you have all this beautifully organised information, it's a good idea to start formatting.

6. Formatting
a. Headers
The title of your topic should always also be included in the topic body. So, if you name your factbook the "Randomistania World Factbook", make that the header text of your factbook. Here's a good example of how to set up your main header. Remember to remove the spaces in the tags.
[ U ][ B ][ COLOR=Green ][ SIZE=6 ]Randomistania World Factbook[ /SIZE ][ /COLOR ][ /B ][ /U ]
b. Subheaders
On a well-organised factbook, subheaders are what lead each of your categories. Place them at the beginning of a new category, and don't forget to do this. A poor example of factbook construction is when you forget to separate your categories - the poor readers will be confused as to why you have military facts in your geography section. Here's a good example of how to set up your subheaders. Remember to remove the spaces in the tags.
[ U ][ B ][ COLOR=DeepSkyBlue ][ SIZE=4 ]Geography of Randomistania[ /SIZE ][ /COLOR ][ /B ][ /U ]
c. Individual Facts (Tertiary Headers)
In a sub-categorical format, you can format your facts to have the title of the fact in bold above the fact itself, and double space between each fact. It should look something like this:
Natural mineral resources
Copper, silver, tin, gold

Natural non-mineral resources
Timbre, fresh water, petroleum
The bonus of this format is that it can be used as a tertiary header, for example in your history section. If that doesn't appeal to you, just do it in a basic format, like so:
Natural mineral resources: Copper, silver, tin, gold
Natural non-mineral resources: Timbre, fresh water, petroleum
And the third option in formatting your facts inside a category is to put them in a bulleted list format, which you can find on your forums posting page.

d. Alignment
The most common and best-looking alignment is left-align, which is of course the default alignment, but some factbooks, usually the smaller ones, are aligned to the centre or alternate per category (one category in the left, the next is centred, the next to the right, and the next back to the left and so on). However, you do whatever you think looks best and most visually pleasing. Most people are afraid to experiment and just end up leaving it as the default which is, as mentioned, left alignment.

e. Fonts, colours and weight
Don't get fancy in this category, as said, keep it simple, and stick to the normal fonts - Times New Roman, Verdana, Tahoma, Arial and Trebuchet MS. This has to look good for everyone that views it, and by using one of these five fonts, you ensure that they all do. Any bolding, text-colouring, italicising or underlining you do should be decipherable from your tertiary headers to avoid confusion.


E. Add-In "Widgets"
Widgets are images, tables, charts, sound files and hyperlinks that you can add to your factbook (sensibly, of course) to jazz the look up a bit. The best widgets one can put in their factbook are 1) their national flag, 2) a picture or two of the skyline of their largest city or a picture of natural scenery or 3) the coat of arms of the nation. Remember to use tags around the link and provide a description below. If your image is larger than 640x480 pixels, link to it instead of posting directly in the topic. Use [ url ][ /url ] for that (remove the spaces).

F. Finish It Off!
By now, you should have most, if not all, of your information and formatting completed. Just run through your post to check for formatting errors (a good way to check is by previewing your post before you actually submit) and for spelling or grammar mistakes.

Make sure you have copied your completed factbook into the notepad file to create a backup (and if possible, upload a copy to your personal website or server). Post your factbook in International Incidents where it will get the most exposure. If you don't want to put it in II, put it in NationStates, the next most viable option.

Lastly, if you want, you can put a link to your factbook in your signature so that nations RPing or interacting with you can easily access your factbook by way of that link. It's an easy way to advertise and usually is how you get your most hits, excluding topic-bumping.

As for topic-bumping, restrict your bumping of your factbooks to once every 3-6 hours. Too frequently may result in you being warned by the mods. Of course, if people are commenting on your factbook, that's positive bumping, because it keeps your factbook at the front of the forum without any effort on your part.

G. In Conclusion
I sincerely hope that this topic has taught you, as best as possible and as easily as possible, how to create a great factbook without being boring, tedious or disorganised, or at the worst, ugly. I hope this has helped you make your factbook and overcome any initial intimidation, because when it all boils down, making a factbook is fun and easy, and is something you'll be proud of. Most of all, factbooks are a true and circumferent representation of your country and make your RPing and nation a lot more realistic.

If you have any other questions about making a factbook or what to include, don't hesitate to telegram me or, if I'm in IRC, catch me there. I'll be happy to help you! :) I wish you the best of luck with your new factbook!

H. More Factbook Stuff
There are two resources that I think will help your factbook's success or make your factbook more interesting after you've finished and posted it to the wild crowds of NationStates.

Macabees' List of National Factbooks is a great way to get more exposure for your factbook, besides bumping your factbook back to the top of the forum topics list. You can find it here -> http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=398344

Cobdenia provides a factbook->NSWiki transfer service, in which your factbook is reformatted to Wiki syntax and is posted on NationStates' biggest exterior country listing (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page). I have personally tried it and I was extremely pleased with the results. You can find his service here -> http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=411619

That's all, guys! Hope this helped!

Please add to the discussion on this post at the original topic, which is located here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=412728). Thanks!

Krieg’s guide to losing

Admit it, we all don’t like losing and even if you do, I’m sure you’re not adverse to winning. It’s human nature, we all like winning in something or another, it isn’t your fault, if you want to blame someone, blame nature. However, this competitive instinct is the result of evolution, the idea that we need to be faster than the next guy to catch our food was relevant perhaps two thousand years ago but not now, now, we work in communities. And finally, after my irrelevant rambling, we begin to make sense.

Winning is not relevant in role-play.

It can be, if you find it entertaining or if you get a rush from the excitement of you and another role-player going head-to-head, you may not have to read this guide but it would be a good help if you did. There are a lot of pluses from losing that one does not necessarily gain from winning, while the victor in a war RP gets the “material” gain, the loser gets the RP gain.

1.) – Losing earns respect

People will take note of you if you actually lose once in a while, it takes guts to lose, far more guts than it takes to win. It shows you're above your ego and it shows to other people that if they RP with you, they won’t have to worry about you going apeshit and owning them in a bloody display of wankage.

People will actually want to RP with you because they know you aren’t so caught up in winning, that you are actually quite fun and easy to role-play with.

I know this from experience.

I simply will not RP with nations that put competitive instinct before good writing and role-play, if you can combine the three, then that’s great but for me, only the latter two actually mean anything. I’m quite sure others will share my opinion on this point as well.

(addition)
Sometimes though, you need that competitive edge in a roleplay. Of course, good writing and role-playing are two of the more important aspects of war, but if you have absolutely no competitiveness, what exactly is the point of roleplaying a war in the first place? Sure, it's all about the story, but to be competitive makes things more interesting.

2.) – The possibilities of losing

When you lose a war (in this case an invasion), you can do a whole lot of things with your nation. You could change regime if you’d like, you could role-play as a protectorate of the nation that conquered you, you could role-play a resistance. You could role-play a whole manner of things. However, the role-play that you want to do, is your choice, not the invader. It’s your choice if you want to role-play a resistance, it’s your choice if you want to change regime, it’s your choice if you want to become a puppet of the invader.

No, it isn’t the invaders right to dictate what goes on in your country, while you have a de facto obligation to have a puppet government, you could easily have it as corrupt and pro-rebellion. What goes down in your nation is just that, it’s your nation, your choice!

(addition)
Another potential situation would be the cooperation between the nation that conquered you, as well as the citizens of the conquered nation. An example would be of the United States and Japan after World War 2. Through cooperation, the USA ultimately rebuilt Japan into a more structured nation, giving it the opportunity in becoming what it is today. The same situation could be roleplayed, where the occupying nation rebuilds the conquered nation, structures its government, and sets up strong ties with that government, perhaps making an alliance between the two.

So, you have all this potential RP and guess who gets to pull the strings and make things happen: you. Not the invader, it’s the loser that gets to pick what happens next.

3.) – No one or thing is perfect; embrace imperfection

Flaws are what define, make and break characters and even nations, a poor, unstable country with a communist dictatorship running the show via fists of AK armed troopers marching the streets, occasionally putting down the rebels in the jungle is far more interesting to read about than a generic rich nation with no flaws whatsoever.

Same goes for armies, I role-play in an offsite forum, World at War (http://modernwarstudies.net/worldatwar/index.php) as Luxembourg and in that nation, I have an army of extremely pompous soldiers, well armed and trained but wearing bright, royal clothing. This is the twenty-first century, and yes, my army is going to get kicked in when they engage an enemy that uses camouflage and aims to get the job done, when my guys are only bothered with looking rich and important when pictures are taken of them. But who says that they aren’t a joy to role-play with?

In Nationstates, as you may be aware, I role-play Kriegorgrad as an Orwellian state, with its army made up of the Proletarian Guard, these guys, once more, are well trained but aren’t as well equipped, in fact, they’re equipped with what most nations regard as scrap metal. They are equipped with world-war-two British weaponry, the Enfield is the main weapon of choice. Once more, these lads will get their arses handed to them on a platter by whoever they go up against but who says that makes for bad RP?

The vices make up an army, they give it a flavour! When people think of the Proletarian Guard, I hope they think of emaciated troopers propped up by the lies and propaganda that the state perpetuates. When people think of the Royal Guardsmen, they think of stuck-up nobles and pampered young men rather than gritty, hard core warriors. While they are well trained, they are still the kind of characters that drink tea with pinky out.

Even characters are more interesting when flawed, one character in my Collective Oligarchy is named Mustapha Krin, he is a weedy, pale man with dark red lips who is constantly at political war with Henry (unknown surname as of yet!), who is broad feature and dark skinned. They are polar opposites, Mustapha with his quick parrot talk and Henry with his slow but well thought out speech: Mustapha gets trumped every time. While not particularly important, it’s nice to see someone lose, as you instinctively go for the underdog.

People like characters with flaws, not just some bullet-impervious uber soldier.

4.) – You’re nearly there, now you just need to lose that first battle!

As ridiculous as it sounds, it is actually remarkably fun. I role-played a war with Hogsweat quite some time ago, it was called Blood and Mud (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=393477&page=1&pp=15) if you can recall it. In that RP, I had ineptly equipped Proletarian Guardsmen, fuelled only by state sponsored propaganda charging over five hundred yards of muddy hell, getting gunned down in droves by Hogsweatian machine guns and having my aging Centurion battle tanks blown asunder by Israeli Merkava tanks, crewed by the well trained Hogsweatians. I got trumped, when eventually my men got into close quarter combat, things faired little better, my grimy destitute soldiers were mowed down by efficient Hogsweatian trench emplacements and kill zones. My tanks were still having the hell blown out of them, off-zone support, the artillery guns has been long since disabled, napalm annihilating more than half of the guns in one fell swoop from well trained Hogsweatian aircraft. The Kriegos aircraft were blown apart but are still struggling to hold on for dear life. However, this doesn’t stop them getting plucked out of the sky by Hog’s merciless anti-aircraft fire and superior aircraft.

And just to let you know, this role-play was perhaps one of the most amusing and fun role-plays I’ve ever had the pleasure of taken part in, while I got soundly beaten, it was great fun writing about my poor men getting beaten about like there’s no tomorrow. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself, describing your men’s grizzly fates and the echo of fear that resounds for the poor soldier’s comrades is an interesting subject to write about.

People love to hear about others suffering, so why not give the public what it wants? I know, that when I read a role-play, I don’t want to hear about some person gloating in-character or out-of-character about how amazingly uber-tastic his soldiers or technology are. If you have some soldiers with flaws and vices, you have a whole myriad of potential role-play paths, whereas if you have soldiers with no flaws and the best technology money can buy, you can’t go anyway, really.


5.) Yes, it’s come to an end

This is the part where I say goodbye and I have to leave you to ponder your own ideas on losing. I hope you gained something from this guide and enjoyed reading it as much I enjoyed writing it (which I actually did, I’m a bit hyper on tea-induced-caffeine). When offered with an opportunity to role-play a war or other conflict, think to yourself: What would happen if I lost?

In a few ways, losing is more of a victory than winning is, you have the upper hand in choosing what to do next in many cases and you are the one who can dictate what will happen. Accepting a loss, while perhaps against human nature, is a sure fire signal that we’ve evolved beyond our ancient competitive instincts and into a truly communal animal that focuses on the greater good rather than personal advancement.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t win, certain role-plays demand you win but I’m saying that feel free to lose as well, people don’t think any less of you for it, if fact, a lot of them think higher of you. If I were to have an RP with Iuthia, I’d be happy to have my arse handed to me on a platter because it would be done well and not in an intimidating offence of acronyms and SIX-156-MG2 mach 15 armour penetrating missiles.

(addition)
"It's good to lose", but don't keep that in mind (as in something to do all of the time) when roleplaying any possible war that you are involved in. Let the roleplaying take its course, as well as keeping up with realistic losses, and eventually, someone will win. Depending on the roleplay, a winner may already be declared, because some people do plan these things out before-hand, but in those roleplays that haven't decided a winner yet...it's an open fight.

Give it your all, and use create situations to throw off your opponent. If your enemy throws them back at you, roleplay it realistically, but use your own creativity to give it back at them again. If your opponent outwits you, there's nothing wrong with losing. Winning is fun, but losing isn't a bad thing.

In the future, remember: It’s good to lose.

(Added a few bits here and there, and took out a few sentences to encourage people to lose. Only thing that's necessary is for people to accept a loss, rather than wanting to lose.) ~ Euroslavia

RP Suggestions for a Friend

Introduction: Welcome to my rather brief guide to role-playing in space, mostly aimed at players like The Fedral Union and those who RP around him. The reason I’m keeping this OOC is to avoid all the IC issues that surround these nations and how they all seem to be pretty angry at one another and just love making accusations. Why am I writing this? Well lets call it a last ditch effort to slam some sense into a certain region of International Incidents, I did inform TFU that I would be writing something like this more or less to help him out… he can take it or leave it if he wants.

You would think that a lot of these nations have been role-playing space a lot longer then I have and would be more experienced at it, in general this is correct, but due to the fact that these nations commonly have arguments about number-wanking, tech-wanking, puppet-wanking and stat-wanking I think it’s about time we organised something to point out how role-playing etiquette fits into the space universe.

Please note these are suggestions, not laws or rules. They are not official and they are only being mentioned to hopefully point out some problems. Also note I will be changing this as I go along as I may have missed points… I’m fully prepared to change if someone has a better suggestion.

Why is it invite only then? Well that’s simple enough; because a lot of people like to take any opportunity to have a pop at the Fedral Union whenever someone points out their problems. This means that I’m forced to keep this between nations who generally RP with the Fedral Union and understand that if they are going to post in this thread they should be constructive… I will only warn you once before asking you to leave, if you do not leave then I will point out to a mod that you are being bothersome and they will warn you to leave. This is not an attempt to insult anyone, just help out with the arguments.


General Role-Playing Suggestions So that’s the basic idea of the thread out of the way, now on to the actual suggestions themselves. As many have noticed throughout the many role-plays in space, a lot of them in International Incidents have ended in arguments and claims that one player is ignoring the other, here are some tips to help avoid this:

> Work things out OOC: First piece of advise is fairly simple; you will find that when you start an role-play with a nation you may have combat with, you will find that most of the time you will both have different technologies and ideas on how the role-play will go. As such it’s important to work out any problems OOC before you start the RP. You can do this in MSN, telegram or even in a separate thread… if you don’t do this you may waste a lot of time arguing with the other nation over the power of your weapon, why they aren’t taking enough damage and so on. Work out how your technology will interact with one another… bare in mind people RP many different times and technologies and to say that yours is automatically better in every way will put them off role-playing with you. Work out an agreement.

> Spelling, Grammar and Format: This is a quick addition, but basically if you want to be understood you should make it easier to read for everyone else. Basically you should try and make sure that you’re spelling it reasonable, your grammar is ok and your format makes it easy for people to read. The best way to achieve this is to use a program like Win Word to spell check your post and maybe even point out some grammar problems. However your format is down to you. The best advice I can give you is to remember to space things out so it’s not all in one clump. Basically look at other peoples posts and see how they do it, who’s post is easier to read, which one looks neat… and so on.

> Its freeform baby! Yeah, I know I should have pointed this out earlier, but it goes without saying. You can RP anything you want and there is little anyone can do about it. However, while this is the case the little people can do about it includes the ignore feature, if you are being unreasonable with your latest idea people may choose not to acknowledge this. Remember, while you can role-play anything, you can also ignore anything. So while you can RP your nation being the best in the universe, everyone else can ignore such a claim and choose not to RP with you. That’s the beauty of freeform, and it’s greatest frustration. This is why you should be reasonable.

> Be reasonable: This one is related to the last tip, basically you are both about to role-play a story which may end in some form of combat, or maybe even start with combat. However you can’t assume that NS is a competition that you can win, think of it as a cooperative storyline where you each add a party and play out a battle. The winner can be determined by both of you depending on how well you do against the other; you can probably come up with an agreement as to the winner assuming you didn’t decide at the beginning. Don’t just assume that because Star Trek technology will automatically win against Homeworld technology… you are here to write a story, not wank over how superior your technology is. However, that said, if the other person admits they are weaker but are willing to role-play a futile attack/defence then fair enough, because it comes out as interesting for both players…

> Be descriptive: This isn’t really as important, but it makes the thread a whole lot better. The more description you put into it, the more interesting it is to read and the more you will enjoy the role-play on the whole. It also allows the other player to have a better idea of what’s going on. However, it’s possible to have too much description… its up to the individual player, but try not to let the information get drowned out by the description.

> Show (OOC) respect: You may or may not respect the player you are role-playing with, but if you are going to insist on role-playing with them I would suggest you don’t insult them or their role-play fashion… after all, you are role-playing with them right? So at least role-play with them without going out of your way to insult them otherwise you will end up with nothing more then a bitch-fest on your hands. However, on the other hand, don’t assume every OOC criticism is intended as an insult, if you don’t like it then respectfully ask them to not to criticise like that… in the end they can choose not to role-play with you if you won’t pay attention to their problems.

> Have fun: It gets forgotten a lot of the time but Nationstates is just a game; albeit an addictive game which takes a lot of time and effort for some people. The important thing is to have fun; if you are not having fun then you should try something else. Tired of having wars with everyone? Chill out and try something else, make peace with those you fight or have a peace conference… that way you automatically have a character/diplomatic role-play. Or perhaps you don’t have enough combat… again, you can probably find something to get involved with or if you want to keep a good reputation you can role-play war games or something. Just enjoy yourself.


Combat Role-Playing Suggestions: Now that we have the basics out of the way, I think it’s time to move on to the more important parts of looking at combat itself. The problems here are that players often do things like deny the other player of the chance to defend themselves and so on. So these are the hints regarding combat:

> Work things out OOC: Oh dear, I’ve mentioned this one before, however I feel that this one is damn important for a combat role-play. In space, or anywhere for that matter, you will find that the other people will have different weapons and different ideas on how effective they are. Hell, both of you are using fictional weapons in a fictional universe, so how about working out together how effective your weapons would be and so on. This is important because if you don’t you may not like how the other player role-plays the damage he takes and argue about it, which would damage the thread. You can also talk about the speed of the thread here too, like if you want to bother role-playing mobilisation and deployment, mentioned below. Different players work at different speeds, work it out first guys.

> The Basics: These are the actual rules you shouldn’t be ignoring but a lot of people do anyways. I shouldn’t have to mention these but I guess that with people acting as they do it needs to be included. We are talking about things like claiming other people’s damage, role-playing other players’ character/forces and generally taking all the fun out of the role-play for the other players.

Firstly there is the godmode that is claiming damage. Freeform role-play is designed around the idea that you can role-play anything you like however you like. However you can only RP your own stuff, and more importantly, to make combat fair the defender chooses how much damage he takes from an attack. It’s a godmode to claim their damage for them; however it’s a godmod for them to ignore damage completely. As we all know, you can RP whatever you like, but if RP something in a way others can’t agree with, they can ignore whatever they like, including you.

Then there’s simple role-play etiquette like role-playing another nations forces or characters. You have to get permission to do so otherwise you will be enforcing something they may not have wanted to do; they control their people and you control yours. Breaking this one is to me a rather serious thing and I generally ignore any action which RPs when I didn’t allow them to do so.

You also need to know that you can’t puppet wank. This is basically the description I use of nations who use puppets to make their nation stronger then it is. You have one nation, you can’t use puppets to make it have more people or more forces… you can’t control another nation and claim it’s an ally, basically put puppets shouldn’t interact. Each nation is independent and one player can’t use two nations for the same problem.

> Mobilisation and Deployment: Ah, we are now on to the good stuff, you will recognise these words as being distinctively military based. Well now we discuss the importance of describing how your forces got into the combat, sometimes you won’t have to do this because neither player wants to bother with it… after all; you have a battle to get to. But to be safe, I’ll cover it here because many nations feel it is important and adds a level of realism.

Mobilisation is the process of getting your forces together and organising them so they are ready for action. This process is usually costly and you can’t really have your forces mobilised all the time because that’s pretty expensive. For space, imagine if your fleet was always on red alert, you can’t keep it up all the time. However could probably be done fairly quickly but remember that your forces could be all over the place so it could take some time, future tech or not.

Deployment is the process of moving the prepared forces into the areas they are going to be needed in. This can take a while and it depends on the speed of your vessels, you can use deployment to your advantage to flank and position yourself in the best area… however it needs to be said that the other side has to do this too so getting a good spot isn’t always possible. Both deployment and mobilisation should take at least a post each. Mobilisation takes more time depending on how much you are mobilising and where they are at the time. Deployment takes as long as it takes you to get the forces to the area you are deploying too.

> Take Turns You are in a cooperative story, it only makes sense to take it in turns to take actions. Basically you make your move and then allow them to make their move, fairly simple really. However, you can make more then one post at a time if you are bumping the thread a little or adding new information but you aren’t doing any more actions. You can also post more then once to describe action which isn’t going on between you and your opponent, such as reinforcements (bare in mind you can only post for the reinforcements once for each time your opponent posts). Basically, you do your bit and they do there’s… its simple.

> Made up statistics mean very little: Lets face it, we all know half of International Incidents is filled with posts about the latest tanks, ships and space craft which are going to be the greatest ever. However, when it really comes down to it, and I mean really comes down to it; these statistics are often over looked and ignored by the majority of role-players. Do you know how much damage a 10’000 Terawatt Phaser will do to a 5ft plate of Unobtanium? No? Well neither do I… they are both made up weapons for fiction. It’s up to the defender to decide how affective your weapon is against his unit, and a lot of the time he’s thinking about what he can afford to take without being ignored, he may take some of it into consideration but he won’t actually research the difference between two makes of one weapon. As such having a ship with uber-statitics will end up performing the same as a normal ship of its type because a lot of people don’t care about your improvements.

> Logistics: This isn’t as important as many others, as some technology levels ignore this completely. However it’s something I felt should be mentioned because a fair few nations hold this as important. Basically logistics is the aspect of military operations that deals with the procurement, distribution, maintenance, and replacement of materiel and personnel. In modern warfare it is vital to an operation as your troops need supplies to keep fighting. In many space battles it’s not so important so I’m not going to be too harsh about this one, but generally it limits the range of your vessels as you have to re-supply after a while, the more combat you are in the more often you will need supplies. In the modern world you need ships to transport your supplies to your troops, these ships need deepwater ports to offload their cargo and then they need trucks to distribute them further and so on. The larger the operation the more complex it is, the smaller the operation the easier it becomes, but other factors like getting them there and how dangerous it is come into it.

In space this could be anything from having to go and get a proper system check done at a space station to actual supplies needed. It’s not often RPed but it can be important.



Realism Suggestions: I couldn’t think of a name for this section, but basically this the idea is to go into detail as to how to be reasonable with the forces of your nation and statistics, I know that these things aren’t always important, but people like to be detailed. This is a guide on how to be reasonable with your nation’s forces and cover some hints to help:

> Concept Your nation is clearly based on something’s, maybe you are using ideas you like from real life be they real or fantasy, maybe you are making it up as you go along, but you have an idea of how your nation is run and what technology it has. This is your concept. Iuthia is based on a benevolent dictatorship run in the fashion I would rule the world if I had the chance (who’s surprised about that one, I bet it’s not many). The Fedral Union’s concept is Star Trek’s Federation with some changes to suit the player.

This concept is important to helping you imagine your nation. You can make it up or your can follow some other fiction or reality, freeform is freeform after all, you can do what you like.

> Be Feasible: This is the more important hint really, a lot of nations seem to get a little lost in the concept which is all very well but you have to remember you aren’t the best nation in the world, there is no such thing. At best your nation may be brilliant at some things and poor at others, but there is no overall best and it’s quite common that someone is bigger then you, has more money then you or more naked then you. So don’t get caught up in being the best. You should try and stay true to your concept while bearing in mind that others will want to interact with you and won’t always agree that you are the best. Your concept may be better then you if you are role-playing science fiction, after all those fictions have an entire galaxy to use for their adventures, you have a nation with a set population. The population isn’t always important, but a lot of people take note of it so it’s important not to get carried away with your concept. For example; you are a Star Trek nation, if you RPed it as though you were just like them you would have the resources of the Federation with just under a trillion people and thousands of advanced ships, but then what if someone then RPed Star Wars? They would have an entire galaxy to play with, maybe hundreds of thousands of ships and hundreds if not thousands of trillions of people. How about Warhammer 40’000? Well then you have pretty much the same as Star Wars, only your ships are even more obscene, you have worlds which produce nothing but Titans and stupidly powerful space marines…

Everyone can RP an idea and some of those ideas are a lot more powerful then others, the trick here is to balance them out to an acceptable level. The acceptable level depends on who you are role-playing with, some people don’t mind you having several systems to yourself, and some people will ignore your extra population and obscene amounts of ships. Some will ignore you on site and others may even mock you, even though they should not. It’s up to you to strike that balance, who do you want to RP with? Personally I like to be pretty feasible and strike a balance. I hope you do to.


Thanks, that is the conclusion, for the time being, of my guide. I didn’t cover the points I wanted to, I wanted to get into numbers and so on, but this is a fairly open thing now. Anyone can use these hints and it will probably help you get along better with some. Remember, these aren’t rules, just suggestions.

I will take comments as you like and I’m not really looking for a sticky (though I have to admit, if the title is changed it would be nice) this is all because I want to explain, in detail, what you can do to improve your chances in role-play. Thanks, I hope you find this useful.

Pete – The Player behind Iuthia.