NationStates Jolt Archive

So. There are lots of endemic problems with FT. By-and-large, we have a community of reclusive oldies who occasionally slip out of retirement to wreak havoc in the same manner as a slumbering Godzilla, ('02s, '03s, some '04s) a decent-sized community of middling nations who weren't here for the fall of the GA (heck, that was before I had this nation), the first Shivan War, the second Shivan War, or even the GFFA/ESUS conflict. Our late '05s to '06s.

Then we have a smaller community of young nations ('07s-'09s) who have come in the wane of NS FT, and haven't really seen how good the alliance system was before it broke down. Before it wasn't just a hegemony where, by-and-large, every single major nation was allied with one another in the form of the ESUS that made fighting a war against them impossible for the simple reason that they were way too fucking big to fight one-on-one, and if you brought in allies, so could they - problem one in spades.

Furthermore, the RP etiquette and rulesets developed between older players never really seemed to disseminate amongst the younger ones. This isn't to say the younger players are bad - it's mainly the fault of the older nations for not really interacting enough. There's something of a generational gap in FT.

Which is why I'm proposing the Sphere of Influence program. I've had a somewhat unique position in FT, being one of the few really active nations right back from '03. I've been in almost every major event, and I've raised several RPers from infancy to awesomeness (Telros, Kostemetsia, and Kewen) under my hairy wings.

This worked really, really well. It allowed me to get involved in things nominally on their behalf, and make sure they weren't glassed for minor mistakes in IC threads against bigger nations, (which gave me new RP), it gave them an ally to use as a buffer for mistakes, and someone to help get them involved with the RP community at large. It gave me new people to RP with, and, in the case of all three, willing participants in whatever crazy hijinks I decided to embark upon week-by-week.

So, what I'm looking for are two types of nation.

The first is like myself. An older nation with RP experience, knowledge about the many affairs of FT, involvement in most of them, good writing skills, MSN so they can communicate with nations involved in this, and an all-around good history and friendly demeanour. Obviously, the older the better, but RP skills and activity are migitating factors - I want not only strong IC protectors but decent OOC mentors.

The second are newbies. Not necessarily '09 or '08 newbies - as I've said, anyone from late '06-'09 can apply for this, or anyone around that size-range (if you started in '05, but let your nation die from '06-'08).

Why?

It's pretty simple. I'm looking to set up a new minor set of alliances, in which we have a central large nation with a few smaller nations as their "sphere of influence". So, fundamentally an alliance with all nations independent (the specific terms can be set by the participants), but one dominant nation who is there to both help out the others when a clusterfuck looks imminent, but who can also RP with them, get them into the older echelons of RP, and generally help them out.

These alliances aren't massive - one major nation, and maybe two-three smaller ones, or even just one if the numbers work out that well.

This means that on a simple level, smaller nations are highly unlikely to be obliterated for making a mistake in an intro thread (or by posting an intro thread), while retaining their autonomy, and gaining an ally and mentor in the process.

So. A few notes before I ask for signups.

One. This isn't an alliance system. Alliances come of it, but at a more basic level, we're promoting communication and RP between ancient and newbie.

Two. This is an alliance system. You're expected to ally with your "sphere of influence", help them out, so on and so forth. This isn't just some realpolitik alliance, either. If someone fucks up, you still help them.

Three. Work the terms out for yourself. If you're an evil nation of marauders, you might want to ally with someone like myself, who's a largely sedentary evil empire. The terms might be, ICly, just supplies in exchange for hitting targets we don't like. Alternatively, it might be an official pact between two democratic nations. If you like, it might even be a military invasion of your nation, if you go that way.

The point is that it's your choice. The IC connection must exist, but it's not as important as the OOC one.

Four. OOC communication is expected. Oldies need to be dispensing advice on a regular basis. A bit of your time needs to be invested into this.

Five. All partnerships are based on mutual OOC agreement. A newbie can request a specific oldie, and if it's agreed-upon, BAM. There we go. New SoI.

If there are any questions, post them in this thread. Expressions of interest, likewise.
- - - - -
Interested Nations:

Oldies:
Hyperspatial Travel

Newbies:

Right, I think this is a great idea, as the older generation needs to help newer one along before we age in to dust :P. On that note count me in to Help in what ever possible way I can.

Definately interested. A wonderful way to renew RP, invigorate the galactic plane and to allow our younger promising ones to enter into the spirit of things :D

I'd call myself a noob. Mind if I tag along?

How exciting, its seems like a very good idea, consider me signed up.

I have found that there is another problem with FT community as a whole. I had in the past had the problem with just where we are in space in relation to each other. For myself, its not enough to just RP, I need a good IC reason to join a particular RP. Why? For the same reason I just gave in the second sentence in this paragraph. I need a sense of "scale" in where we are in relation to each other.

For example, someone who is "in my galactic neigborhood" is going to attract more attention then someone who on the other side of the galaxy, or in another galaxy altogether. So what I'm a getting at? Simple! We need a universal galactic map.

Another problem I have with many new players (or even some older ones) is that they are running around in 40km warships... and in some cases, in large numbers, no less! I mean, lets get real here, few of my own reach above 1km, but there are good IC reasons for this.

I'd also like to see some good IC explainations for each players race/nation. Such as, why is your territory so small, or large? Why is your race or nation isolationists, or its opposite, internationalists? There needs to be good IC reasons for RPing, but for the way things are the way they are within your race/nation.

Aside from all that Hyperspace Travel's idea sounds good.

Sounds like a good idea to me, especially since I believe my RP ability has been lacking these past few days/weeks. So I'd love to sign up as either this nation (lost marauders of crazies who love to rape and pillage), or the Veneficus Regnum. Whichever one someone wants to 'adopt' ICly. n.n

This is Telros, HT, just in a puppet. I'd be glad to help you out and be in this program in any way I can. I'd be glad to mentor, as either nation since my puppet is a fair size as well, and participate.

If this leads to more threads that are interesting, and which don't die after a while, then I'm very interested.

Messy politics and bureaucracy (which you either quickly get guided through or quickly get completely stuck in) are very important to my nation, to make things worse it's a tiny city-state, where everybody knows everyone else. That makes it a major headache when characters are stuck in a thread of which I'm not sure if it's dead.

So if I could cooperate with a big nation that doesn't often let threads die, that would be nice!

For those who don't know me, I have three races within my nation. One is rarely seen so I don't really need to explain them in a short intro; one is normal humans; and the third (of which there are most) is well-meaning but somewhat arrogant and hotheaded. And carnivorous. All spaceships are unarmed, tiny, sturdy and fast.

I doubt Izi and ZMI could be convinced to help with this, therefore, despite not being an oldie, it leaves only one NS who might persuade RPers that Space is NOT an Ocean (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceIsAnOcean), has not only two dimensions (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Two-DSpace), friction (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceFriction) or stealth (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StealthInSpace). And that the usual sense of scale in FT RPs is totally messed up (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale).

And that interstellar wars lasting centuries are more awesome than those lasting days or weeks.

I have found that there is another problem with FT community as a whole. I had in the past had the problem with just where we are in space in relation to each other. For myself, its not enough to just RP, I need a good IC reason to join a particular RP. Why? For the same reason I just gave in the second sentence in this paragraph. I need a sense of "scale" in where we are in relation to each other.

This is exactly the very reason why I don't participate of most NS RPs. The fact traveling through a twisted, daemon-infested realm of Chaos is the only way Solarians have to travel faster-than-light, where people may end with fates worse than death, and that it only works outside their universe, is another one.

*Edit: From the "Sci Fi Writers have no Sense of Scale":

Very carefully averted with the Warhammer 40000 space battle Gaiden Game Battlefleet Gothic, for all its joyful use of Space Is An Ocean and the Rule Of Cool in general. The actual models are completely out of scale with the rest of the game, distances being measured being from the centre of the ships' bases so that you can have nice looking miniatures without also requiring a spare country to play the game in. Base-contact in the game is "close range," generally of the order of tens of thousands of kilometres. This is also the reason you need a command check to ram another ship - the captain not only has to order a potentially suicidal course of action and make it stick with the crew, he also has to hit a target equivalent to headbutting a pinhead from a mile away...

I would consider myself the average FT player, but I wouldn't mind learning some more, throw me in as a newbie!

-Snip-

I like this guy.

Anyway.

'04 player. HT, you might remember me as Clan Ansu in the Republic. I guess you can count me in as a helper, but my style's probably going to be limited to slapping people for being unrealistic and/or overpowered.

Ah I do so love BFG, though when I deal with 40k ships I do take into account that space is not a flat tabletop ocean....Thing.

I'm a late 0'8 er but i'd hardly consider my skills noobish.

But yes, there is a great divide between the old, the new, and indeed, there are divisions between groups of nations who cluster together. So yes, I think this is a good idea; i'm not sure where i'd fit in this though since I feel my skills are able enough but i'd probably not be so good on the mentoring side of things. I was personally working on an idea for all FT nations to come together under a common roof of sorts but haven't had the time to set it up; maybe this will acheive something in a more disperate and scatterd manner.

Chron, TFU, Telros, Nag, Ansu, you're obviously by-and-large accepted, though as you're fairly limited Ansu, you might not want to take on some newbies. SC, being a special case as always, you are as well.

USU, we're not looking for "noobs" specifically. Even for nations who've been here for a year or so still don't have the accumulated experience that the real old oldies do. And that's my major point. It's not a writing training program or someone to read you the stickies - it's someone who's been around for quite awhile, knows all the little tiny, irritating points of etiquette (from the simpler size is roughly equivalent to power, to when it's acceptable to use FTLi, when it's acceptable to punch through FTLi, a decent knowledge of sizes for ships that won't get you called out on wank..) that simply take a lot of time and effort to learn - they're not written anywhere, yet they govern a lot of FT interaction.

Likewise, SoI is designed to make sure IC interaction works and works well without the oh-so-common clusterfuck. They're less common these days, but only because FT RP is also less common.

And trust me, trying to bring all of FT together under one roof is at best a hopeless endeavour. Even pulling something fragmented like this together is going to take a fair bit of work.

Oblivion2, you were part of an old Travellian organization. If you'd want to partner up with me, I'd have absolutely no problem with that.

Hey guys. Long time no see, given that I've left this account on ice for the past two years. I just want to make my interest in this project known. One problem, though: I'm not sure quite whether I'd count as an old FTer or a new one, assuming I can get in at all. On the "big guy" side, I've got something like 7.3 billion people, I've roleplayed in FT around here before, and although my writing skills are probably somewhat rusty I like to think that I was at least reasonable before (feel free to disagree). However, I've been out of the game for a considerable length of time, and even when I was active I was always a bit peripheral: I missed all the big events like the Shivan invasions and the GFFA/ESUS wars. I guess I'm either a fucking huge newbie or an inexperienced oldie. I'll settle for either.

I'd say you're an oldie. You do have considerable rp experience, though you haven't been in those big events. As such, you're an oldie.

Also, this is Telros but on my Eldar puppet account.

Oblivion2, you were part of an old Travellian organization. If you'd want to partner up with me, I'd have absolutely no problem with that.

Ah yes the good old Cyprian Circle, good times those were. As for partnering it's really up to you HT.

I'm down for this as a mentor. ICly it works out fine with the 'kinder, gentler, and less KILLRAPEBURN' Facehuggeria, and OOCly I'm sure I can spare some time.

Heck, maybe if I'm on MSN more, I won't get mauled by hordes of ravening people going "What's up, you're like never on" whenever I sign on. :p

I would like to sign up as a newbie.

Yes, those were good times, the Cyprian Circle.

HT, I RP as a new FT nation since Greal got destroyed by a empire so ICly, my new nation probably never has heard of you. . :(

Out of curiosity, who did you get destroyed by?

And Oblivion, it'd be great to partner up with you. You're one of those people who I feel has a great deal of potential.

Alright HT, if you don't mind then. Just to let you know I am not the same Oblivion I was, when I was in the circle, so if you wanna know what's changed feel free to check my meager factbook. :p

I'm in. I'm just starting in the realm of FT, but I haven't messed up yet. (Or at least nobody's told as much) :D

Oh, neither am I, Oblivion. My nation is a little smaller population-wise, it has a bit more firepower, and its ends are a lot harder to fathom. My factbook just got posted, but it's not really finished yet. It's a barebones affair as of yet.

EDIT: You using MSN these days Oblivion?

Yeah I am, avion144@hotmail.com

I'll fill you in if you kinda don't get stuff about the nation :p

Out of curiosity, who did you get destroyed by?


An NPC race called the Danaversian Empire. Anyway, I also use MSN now: grealnation@live.com

Hm. Well, I fit your standards for writing and experience HT, but as for FT history I'm definitely falling short on - the biggest NS stuff when I arrived on the scene in Dec '05 was AMF v Kraven in the PMT scene. After that the FT divide sorta began...

I'd love to help out with the newer guys, especially in the context of making their writing better and developing plots, characters, backstories, settings, etc., but if you accept me I'd probably not be a good fit for a historian.

So it goes for those of us in the middle...

Yeah, i'll get in on this.
Though, i only really used my FT nation in one RP, and that was my Intro.
Which DIED.
lol

Eh, suppose I should officially throw my head into the oven here (me being Sertian/Veneficus Regnum/Lostmarauder... I promise, no more puppets/alts!).

Amorencinterop@hotmail.com

i'd be interested in joining. could use the alliances, as well as the experiance.

Tiger_Roze@hotmail.com

Hm. Well, I fit your standards for writing and experience HT, but as for FT history I'm definitely falling short on - the biggest NS stuff when I arrived on the scene in Dec '05 was AMF v Kraven in the PMT scene. After that the FT divide sorta began...
I dunno, I joined around the same time as you apparently (okay, a wee bit later, but the really good stuff happened in '05, honest :D ), and I seem to recall a decent amount going on: JJR's civil war and subsequent annihilation of his conventional population, the GE civil war where I virus bombed Thrashia Prime (for which I apologize severely, but the death star was in system. How was I supposed to know PKs were verboten?), a Black Crusade or two, the semi-abortive GFFA-ESUS war (I still think we won ;) ), and a rather lot more that I'm too lazy to remember. It's just a matter of knowing where to look, IMO.

Anyway, keep me in mind if you need another mentor (although you seem to have plenty of those and not enough newbies ;) ). Always wanted a puppet state...

Marc_C_C@hotmail.com if anyone wants to get in contact with me and start one of these alliances :D

I'd participate, but my nation has, thus far, pissed off every other nation it's come in contact with.

Why? We're paranoid a-holes with an agenda.

calaelen90@hotmail.com

Contact me if you want to start these alliances as well.

anisarian@gmail.com
I've already helping Sertian in one of his incarnations. Am open to others.

anisarian@gmail.com
I've already helping Sertian in one of his incarnations. Am open to others.

Your "helping" basically boils down to trying to steal my galaxy from me! D:

I already offered to share! ^^

cultistlemming@hotmail.com

Feel free to contact me, either to start one of these alliances or something less formal. It works for e-mail or MSN.

feazelorr1@aol.com - MSN
Dafeaz@gmail.com - Email

Lemme know if you wanna start something up!

just msn me, finsnumber13@hotmail.com

More than willing to help a brotha out.

I will teach the boy...

And while I haven't played Nationstates in some time, and while I may have never been that popular, and while most of my posting was done on an off site forum, and may not be good leadership material, etc, etc...

I believe I have two characteristics that make myself a good candidate for this mentor program. I've been through probably some of the worst Nationstates can throw at someone and I know what it takes to survive for several years under an extremely pressurized diplomatic atmosphere.

I want to do this for two reasons. To get back into the game and to give back to the poor bastards who might otherwise be shoved around by guys like me if they don't get a mentor. :\

Auman is an otherwise benevolent military junta that is not keen on starting wars. The nation also allows smoking in bars, and a six pack of beer costs under six dollars.

superdude2525@hotmail.com

I'm in for being mentored. Admittedly, I have a lot of work to do.

My nation is based off of a certain famous game. I decided to fast forward their timeline a few hundred years, toss in a civil war within recent history, and then throw them into space with post modern technology. Of course, my intro post also has the race's first trip into space involving a severe beating before retreating through the Twisting Nether (they haven't learned yet that it brings very bad things) and encountering two other empires.

I'll work on getting MSN. I still need to finish with my factbook.

Sign me up as a participant, although I may have a new nation, well not even a nation at this point, but I've been around for a while. Namely the GFFA, that was an age back, even took part in the infamous what school girl are you thread... :$

I'll toss my hat into this little party. Definately newcomer material myself, and I have Red Talons to thank for tossing me into this wolfpack. *grin*
Anyways, TRIAD's out to make money, pure and simple... They generally won't form binding alliances with anyone, but they *will* eagerly engage in trade. Buying and selling of technologies from around the multiverse.

I might not have much local population, or very many or very big ships... But TRIAD's got a lot of offsite history and has crossed a whole lot of universes, so we've got some fun toys to play with... And sell to whoever can pay for them. =^.^=

Oh yeah: TRIAD_Enterprises@live.com

I'll toss my hat into this little party. Definately newcomer material myself, and I have Red Talons to thank for tossing me into this wolfpack. *grin*
Anyways, TRIAD's out to make money, pure and simple... They generally won't form binding alliances with anyone, but they *will* eagerly engage in trade. Buying and selling of technologies from around the multiverse.

I might not have much local population, or very many or very big ships... But TRIAD's got a lot of offsite history and has crossed a whole lot of universes, so we've got some fun toys to play with... And sell to whoever can pay for them. =^.^=

Oh yeah: TRIAD_Enterprises@live.com

If you love mudkips and authoritarian dictatorships, then add me bro. SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT!

TRIAD will gladly sell their products to all potential clients, even the insane or tryanical... Just as long as those dictators can pay the invoice of course.

The funny thing I am in an RP with at least four players who wish to be "newbies" from the last two pages before I even knew about this Thread so I guess I am already in the Mentoring position. Please sign me up so we can have our Thread as part of this experiment.


Thyrium Wars (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=589104)



Edit: I suggest those participating spread the word by inserting a link to this Thread in their sigs if they have room so others can also find it.

I'd like to participate, on the "newbie" side of course. I think my roleplaying could always use some improvement.

*Shakes the dust from his bones*

I'm interested.

In case HT doesn't have my MSN, and I think he does, somewhere - it's Ranisath (at) hotmail.com, (broken up to avoid cursed spam-crawlers).

Most specifically, I'm interested in Eluneyasa, whose egosearch I found this thread from. Though of course, given what I consider my legitimate sphere of influence (http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/universe.html) in-character, I'm fairly open to other ideas too.

I'll work on getting MSN. I still need to finish with my factbook.

Doing good so far. I loved the first print run idea!

EDIT: Also:

I doubt Izi and ZMI could be convinced to help with this, therefore, despite not being an oldie, it leaves only one NS who might persuade RPers that Space is NOT an Ocean (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceIsAnOcean), has not only two dimensions (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Two-DSpace), friction (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceFriction) or stealth (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StealthInSpace). And that the usual sense of scale in FT RPs is totally messed up (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale).

And that interstellar wars lasting centuries are more awesome than those lasting days or weeks

Pfft. I've rarely actually seen anyone on II use any of those particular tropes. Well, except stealth.

*Shakes the dust from his bones*

I'm interested.

Egads! The metal undead are rising from their crypts! Flee! Run for your lives!

I'm in for being mentored. Admittedly, I have a lot of work to do.

My nation is based off of a certain famous game. I decided to fast forward their timeline a few hundred years, toss in a civil war within recent history, and then throw them into space with post modern technology. Of course, my intro post also has the race's first trip into space involving a severe beating before retreating through the Twisting Nether (they haven't learned yet that it brings very bad things) and encountering two other empires.

I'll work on getting MSN. I still need to finish with my factbook.

Keep going! And I may not be experienced enough to be your mentor but I'd be willing to help you out whenever I can. ^^

Egads! The metal undead are rising from their crypts! Flee! Run for your lives!

For the Lord Brothers. Do not turn your back on Him!

Victory or Death!

Also, my e-mail is stakeroader gmail dot com , although Solar Communes have little reasons to support other civilizations, and thus, besides OOC advices, I may have to resort to another puppet of mine which would certainly wish to have its own sphere of influence...

...by preaching The Holy Bible throughout the stars (http://www.nationstates.net/nation=prazinia).

I'm looking for a good FT RP to do, since it looks to be a little late to sign up for Thyrium Wars, any suggestions?

Go for the war thread. Orinon needs some allies. Ask in the OOC Thread first but I am sure he would welcome your assistance as long as you two can come up with an IC reason to meet.

I would love to get involved in TW.... if I could only find the OOC thread (the link Orinon gives in-thread is to... the IC thread :rolleyes:)

Oh yeah, I'm kinda a middle-level FT RPer, so...

MSN is xxxxtigerxxxx@gmail.com .

oh shit, is it?
Sorry
*blushes like crazy*

My MSN:

eluneyasa (swirly a symbol) live (tiny square that ends sentences) com

Took me a bit to get it set up because of laziness ^_^

I might be interested in trying out the mentoring job in the future, but I have plenty of IC work to do before I can re-enter FT and the interstellar arena. Mark me down as a "maybe."

As a change of plans, I may have to enter myself as a "noob" into this.

I've been so far removed from the game for so long, I've forgotten how things are run around here.

For instance. I was told the other day that I couldn't reliably keep the enemy at range due to the fact that someone with a good FTL drive could just jump relatively on top of me.

So...

feazelorr1@aol.com
^---MSN

Sounds nice. Only issue is that after my first FT RP, I will effectively be in someone else's sphere of influence. And this someone is himself a newbie to FT, though not RPing by any stretch of the imagination. And, ICly, I don't think we could teether ourselves to an oldie.
Hmm...

But anyway, MSN: Fanfman@Yahoo.com

Hey folks, I could use some assistance and/or advice from anyone willing to help. I want to put together a factbook and storefront for TRIAD Enterprises, only I'm not really sure where to even start.

If there's anyone willing to assist me with this, drop me a line on MSN: TRIAD_Enterprises@live.com