NationStates Jolt Archive

Hi,

I've just created my own nation (Barter) a few days ago, and have been reading through the forums since then.

I've noticed with interest that you can do many things, such as go to a storefront to buy equipment.

What I would like to know is this:

Can we/how do we define our geographical location?
If we don't know if we are by the sea, what is the point in buying ships?
How do you set spending (such as military)?
How do you set the proportion of the poplulation that is in your army?

I'm interested because the forums are full of people stating that they have done the above, yet I've no idea how they have managed it.

I'm sure I will have many more questions as I go along, and I'd really appreciate a bit of help :)

Thanks in advance,

The Dominion of Barter.

I'll try to answer your questions one by one.

1) This is for you to decide, every nation is different(I'm a lonely island for example) and you can have fun making your nation the way it suits you.

2) Not being located near a sea can be troublesome sometimes, but on the other hand, you can't be invaded from the sea either allowing you more money for your army and airforce.

3) For you to decide or you can use this http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/

Fill in your nations name in the "find nation" and hit enter, look for your spendings in the lower left square.

4) For you to decide(again) however, a normal percentage ranges from 0.1 till 5%(your economy starts to suffer at this point because you are taking away workers) but nobody can do anything if you want to set it higher.(again, its your choice)

So if you have any further questions, you can TG me if you like or contact me via MSN or AIM, both adresses are in my profile.

If you want to play this game and know where the borders lay, you should perhaps try to take part in one of those earth-quadrillion-games.

Hello,

I have just created my own nation in the game, The Republic of Skinny87, and I have used NSeconomy link to find out the statistics of my nation.

I was just wondering how i can change these statistics, or wether they are changed externally somehow.

Thanks for any help or advice

Skinny87

I am terribly sorry for the multiple postings on this thread, only my computer froze and had an error, causing three to be posted

Apologies for any Inconvenience

Skinny87

Hello,

I have just created my own nation in the game, The Republic of Skinny87, and I have used NSeconomy link to find out the statistics of my nation.

I was just wondering how i can change these statistics, or wether they are changed externally somehow.

Thanks for any help or advice

Skinny87

First delete the tripple post, it looks messy :)

You change the statistics of your country based on what choices you make in the issues presented to you via NS. Also, if you are a member of the UN, some UN resolutions change the statistics of your nation also.

Can we/how do we define our geographical location?


Firstly, yes, yes you can. Second...this is freeform roleplay. It's entirely up to you. You decide if you're landlocked, how large your nation is, what shape your nation is (make a map if you want to), et cetera. For instance, I'm an island nation, composed of one giant island and a group of smaller ones (there's a map linked to in my factbook link in my sig, if you're interested) so I would need a navy. How did I decide I was an island nation? Just made it up. There's not that much that is set in roleplay.

NS world is composed of all the NS nations, so it's up to you where your location relative to the sea is. If you're a member of my region, you're most likely going to be an island with no land borders, unless you find someone to share a land border with.

The two most common NS calculators are the Pipian/SOTA calculator, and the newer, prettier NSeconomy one, linked to in Dumpsterdam's post. There's no perfect calculator for your budget, but this one's pretty good. One thing to bear in mind - your budget is not set in stone. How much money you make is, but how much your taxes are and how much you spend on each sector doesn't have to be the same as the game says. For instance, the game tells me I have no income tax and spend 0% of my budget on defense.Both are not true in my roleplays...the only guideline you need is the 'Government budget' stat from the NSeconomy calculator, and calculate your budget from there.

About budgets, they tend to be between 10 and 15% of your total budget. Otherwise, you wouldn't have a stable economy. There are exceptions to this, my state is fairly libertarian and doesn't spend on welfare, etc - just the basic government functions, pretty much. This means I can have a higher percentage of my budget on defense, but my defense budget in the end isn't very large. Keep in mind that with your budget, a very good deal of it goes on training, recruiting, maintainence, pay, etc. If you have a defense budget of $20 billion, it doesn't mean you get to go off and buy $20 billion of supplies from storefronts. Storefronts also aren't required for anyone - you're welcome to produce your own products. Every nation is able to produce any RL product, RL standing for real life.

Percentage of the population that is in your army tends to max out at 5% unless you have forced conscription (but then, your economy tends not to be so great and the training of the forces tends to be lower as well.) Again, not all of these are soldiers. If 5% of your population is 2 million, you don't have an army of 2 million. There's military intel people, trainers, engineers, logistic crews, tech people, medics, etc, etc, etc. Only then do you get down to the actual fighting force.

You may contact me on AIM if you wish (ZoogieMasterIV) if you don't understand anything.


If you want to play this game and know where the borders lay, you should perhaps try to take part in one of those earth-quadrillion-games.


No. Never! There used to be creativity and imagination around here. There still should be.

Skinny87, your economy level is pretty much set. Tax level and budget allocation is open to adjustment based on your personal preferences. You don't have to spend 22% of your budget on commerce just because NSeconomy tells you so.

Barter, you're always welcome in my region, Isles of Arden. I haven't seen you roleplay, but you look promising. New guys that are able to type coherently are hard to come by ;)

Thanks very much for the help and the useful advice, that's really help me understand a bit more about the game.

Thank-You

Skinny87

Thanks everyone for replying.

The answers have been really useful, and I am glad to see that I'm not the only one not quite getting it yet.

One thing I don't get is how you know that having over 5% of your population in the army damages the economy, as it appears to be unrelated to the NSeconomy statistics.

That said, I have a current unemployment rate of around 8% and a population of around 8 million. In RL the actual 'employable' population is always less than the total (mainly due to age) so therefore as a rule, I would say that gives me an unemployed total of 320,000, provided that the employable population is taken as about half of the total.

However, I don't know if this is usually taken into consideration in NStates, so therefore I will set my armed forces at about 0.5% of the total population, which will give me a very small armed forces, but enough for me.

I would also like to know what sort of percentage of the armed forces will actually be the army, perhaps 50% + ?

The next thing being, if I have a total govt expenditure of say $21bn and decide to allocate 2% of this to the armed forces ($420m) what percentage of this can I expect to be able to spend on equipment?

Again over 50% would be good.

In the end I would like to have an island, with the armed forces split into a navy (50% of total resources) an airforce (25% of total resources) and of course an army (remainder of resources) each being responsible for their own logisitics etc. Ideally the armed forces would deal with situations like potential terrorists or smugglers etc, rather than acutally need to fight where I have no doubt Barter would get squashed rather quickly.

Thanks once again to everyone, and I'm definately interested in moving Barter to Isles of Arden :)

The (rather small) Dominion of Barter.

Well, 5% isn't a concrete figure, just roughly. It's taken from a RL context. Unless you have mass conscription, having tremendous percentages of your population in the military is going to take a hefty chunk from your work force and require a lot of funding, hence, it's undermining your economic stability.


However, I don't know if this is usually taken into consideration in NStates, so therefore I will set my armed forces at about 0.5% of the total population, which will give me a very small armed forces, but enough for me.


I can tell you my unemployment rate has never been a factor. 0.5% is on the low end of the scale - perhaps that can be the number of actual soldiers you have, or roughly half if that of the total people serving in your military.

I think it's half or less than half of your military personell are actually soldiers, but don't quote me on this. Your plans sound good - remember not to focus on the statistics though, the roleplay is much more interesting and important.

:)

One thing I don't get is how you know that having over 5% of your population in the army damages the economy, as it appears to be unrelated to the NSeconomy statistics.

Okay, here goes:

Basicly if you take away more then five percent of your total population then you will have to pull people off jobs.

IE: Factory workers and desk clerks will have to grab for the gun and wear the uniform. So unless you have someone to replace them, there won't be any work done, nothing will be produced and surely but slowly your economy will suffer because of lack of workers. Its not impossible to do, but only for a short period of time(time of war).

That said, I have a current unemployment rate of around 8% and a population of around 8 million. In RL the actual 'employable' population is always less than the total (mainly due to age) so therefore as a rule, I would say that gives me an unemployed total of 320,000, provided that the employable population is taken as about half of the total.

I'd say you have work capable force of around...2.5 million or so(including military) so that makes for a total unemployment of around 200.000.
This will go down as your economy starts to improve.

However, I don't know if this is usually taken into consideration in NStates, so therefore I will set my armed forces at about 0.5% of the total population, which will give me a very small armed forces, but enough for me.

I would also like to know what sort of percentage of the armed forces will actually be the army, perhaps 50% + ?

The next thing being, if I have a total govt expenditure of say $21bn and decide to allocate 2% of this to the armed forces ($420m) what percentage of this can I expect to be able to spend on equipment?

Again over 50% would be good.

So that gives you a standing army of around 40.000 men, armed with AK 74's a few RPG 7 launchers, three dozen or so old tanks, couple of patrol boats for coastal defence and maybe a handfull of old Migs.

The above is an example but you shoudn't expect your army to be the top of the line at the very start, start small and concentrate on what you think is important.


In the end I would like to have an island, with the armed forces split into a navy (50% of total resources) an airforce (25% of total resources) and of course an army (remainder of resources) each being responsible for their own logisitics etc. Ideally the armed forces would deal with situations like potential terrorists or smugglers etc, rather than acutally need to fight where I have no doubt Barter would get squashed rather quickly.

Okay, so your armed forces will be geared towards defence. You don't need to worry about moving your forces around the world, if need be you can let the enemy come to you.

Army: keep it small and light, no heavy tanks or artillery, just infantry. They will prove more usefull helping the local population in times of natural disasters then in war but then again, the army is not your primary concern.

Airforce: Buy a few outdated models such as a Mirage or Mig, equip them with outdated missiles that still preform well = exocets and harpoons.

Navy: Since your an island, this will be your primary concern. Your navy will be geared towards coastal defence and border patrol so two dozen patrol boats and maybe an old frigate/destroyer will do just fine.

If you have any more questions or if I've been unclear(its almost 3 in the morning here), just ask, I'm here all week. :)

Thanks once again for all the help.

Out of interest, how do you go about trading with other nations?

For example, I currently have a trade deficit, yet apart from Information Technology, Soda Sales, and Woodchip Exports I have no idea as to what Barter actually does as a nation.

I don't know how to find out what I produce or need, so I don't know what I can actually export (or import) and if its possible to improve my trade deficit.

Barter is just starting to create its own World Factbook (in rough) and will hopefully be able to submit it sometime soon.

The other thing is, how do you make your own weapons etc?

As ever, I still have a lot to learn so many thanks in advance.

How can I check my nation's standings in The World's daily listings? I can't seem to find it anywhere, and I am not willing to browse through 10,000 pages of nations.

On your nation page (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=Terra Lucia), right above where it says how many telegrams and issues you have, it'll tell you your stance in the region and in the world. Here's my line today:


The Zoogie People is ranked 2nd in the region and 3,243rd in the world for Largest Soda Pop Sector.


There's usually about...120,000 nations in the world, I think. Could be wrong on this figure, though.


Out of interest, how do you go about trading with other nations?

There's no set game mechanism for trading. There's been a wave of trade threads lately where you can set up specific trade agreements, but it's usually not necessary in roleplay. If you're being blockaded, well, that's another story, but you shouldn't worry about trade too much.


For example, I currently have a trade deficit, yet apart from Information Technology, Soda Sales, and Woodchip Exports I have no idea as to what Barter actually does as a nation.

NSeconomy's word isn't set in stone, as no calculator is perfect. Your trade deficit doesn't have to apply in the game, you could declare that you have a trade surplus, I guess. Won't really matter to your economy either way. You can pick and choose what industries you're involved in, I don't believe it really matters in roleplay what the game says you have. There are a bunch of categories, such as automobile manufacturing, book publishing, so on and so forth.



I don't know how to find out what I produce or need, so I don't know what I can actually export (or import) and if its possible to improve my trade deficit.

You actually don't need to know, and there's no way to 'find out.' If you're so inclined, you can make up exact or rough figures on everything you produce and need (some nations have done this, see Artitsa's thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=390961)). As for improving your trade deficit, NSeconomy calculates this based on the other nations in your region, among other details I'm not quite sure about.



Barter is just starting to create its own World Factbook (in rough) and will hopefully be able to submit it sometime soon.

Try making it at the excellent offsite resource made by Goobergunchia, NSwiki (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page). It's more powerful and flexible than most thread-based factbooks.



The other thing is, how do you make your own weapons etc?

I'm not *quite* sure what you mean. If you mean how your nation's industry can produce weapons...you don't have to make a thread in II saying, "My nation is producing so-and-so M-1A2 Tanks..." Your nation is able to produce all real-life military products, limited only by your defense budget.

If on the other hand you're talking about making up your own fictional technology...that takes a bit more effort, and some knowledge of weaponry. It's not needed or required, so don't feel obligated to do so. The best way to learn is probably by example, so I'll direct you to DontGoNearThere's International Mall (http://s6.invisionfree.com/International_Mall), the most complete collection of storefronts on NS.

The other thing is, how do you make your own weapons etc?
Just to expand on what Zoogie said, if your economy is at or above the, say, good or strong ranking, it is reasonable to say that your nation is capable of building its own planes and tanks. It's hard to imagine a nation with an imploded economy being able to build a F-22 or even have an auto industry, etc. You have a thriving economy, so it's safe to say your nation is on par with the US, and has education and industrial structures to make sophisticated products.

Would anyone mind helping me out, as well?

Okay, I'm alsoa newbie, and there's just some things, that I just don't get. I've been reading the forum, and I've been to my NSEconomy (And my nation is doing horrible). I want to know how to import/export/sell/buy. I see on the forum, people've opened up like International Pawn Shops, and other shops. But, how does it get calculated into the NSEconomy? I don't get the whole idea of it. Can anyone help explain?

It doesn't. What happens in roleplay does not have any bearing on what happens to your nation. If you should happen to declare war at this moment on Automagfreek and get utterly demolished, nothing will happen to your nation. You won't log in and find a line saying, "The republic of _____ has been destroyed and is no more."

As with buying/selling. If you buy a $20 million-dollar F-16, then $20 million dollars will not get deducted from your budget on NSeconomy. If you set up trade relations with Artitsa through his thread, you won't get a line saying, "The republic of ____ is a close trading partner with Artitsa."

It's all freeform. Don't be too precise. Don't actually go and manually deduct everything from your defense budget, or keep a notebook outlining the exact imports and exports of your nation to the penny...just know how much money you've got in the bank and buy roughly. If you want to buy from a storefront, make a storyline of sorts about it; for instance, "The defense ministry of ______ has found your product, _____ most satisfactory and has decided to procure a total of _____. The appropriate funds will be wired on confirmation."

Do you understand the whole concept now? If you don't I'm always on AIM (well, not always, but) and there are plenty of other people out there who can explain this, probably better than I can ;)

Thanks for the help, needed it.

how do you get a un delagate for a new region

how do you get a un delagate for a new region
How can I become a Regional Delegate?

Gain the support of other nations in your region. This is obtained via endorsements: once per day, the nation with the most endorsements in each region is appointed Regional Delegate.

You need at least 1 endorsement to become a Delegate.
http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/48113/page=faq#UN


You will need at least two UN nations in a region for one to become a delegate.

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/48113/page=faq#UN


You will need at least two UN nations in a region for one to become a delegate.

No you don't, just one. ;) Or atleast the majority of endorsments in a region.

Thanks everyone for their help.

I hope that this has been of help to other newbies' as well :)

For what it is worth Barter has just submitted an article to NSwiki.

http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Barter

It might even be time for Barter to start buying equipment for their small (currently un) armed forces.