NationStates Jolt Archive

I don't get this game at all. I like the idea of building a nation, but what is with the RPing? It seems to be weak at best. Maybe I have been reading the wrong threads, but from what I have read it goes like this:

I declare war on everyone

Well, I back the guys who you are fighting against.

Well, my side is better.

Nuh-uh

Yes-huh.

My society is way better than yours.

Not anymore... cause they just got nuked.

Is there an actual gameplay to this that I am missing? Maybe like some other website. Cause I see these people who have GDPs listed, and I feel like, well, I guess I could make stuff up also. Can someone help me out?

I don't get this game at all. I like the idea of building a nation, but what is with the RPing? It seems to be weak at best. Maybe I have been reading the wrong threads, but from what I have read it goes like this:

I declare war on everyone

Well, I back the guys who you are fighting against.

Well, my side is better.

Nuh-uh

Yes-huh.

My society is way better than yours.

Not anymore... cause they just got nuked.

Is there an actual gameplay to this that I am missing? Maybe like some other website. Cause I see these people who have GDPs listed, and I feel like, well, I guess I could make stuff up also. Can someone help me out?

Well, the RP here is called "open RP" and the content is determined by the RP'ers....

Unfortunately this does link to "Wanking"... That is dealing with things in horribly unrealistic manners, and turning everything into ideological campaigns, and tech/class/number wanking.

I think, if you peruse all of them, you will find better quality ones... For some reason, I've noticed the near-future, post-modern and future tech RP's of generally better calibre than the modern... This may be due to numbers (MT makes up the largest percentile).

As for the GDP numbers, those are generally, if not wanked, gathered from one of two Nation-States economy calculators... ThirdGeek's NSEconomy Calculator (http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/) is one ,and the other is Sunset's NSEconomy Calculator (http://www.sunsetrpg.com/economystatistics.php). These are generally where most users get their figures... For example.... from Sunset:


The Constitutional Republic of Tekania
Population: 1,900,000,000
Civil Rights: Excellent
Economy: Frightening
Political Freedoms: Excellent
Income Tax Rate: 88%
Exchange Rate: 1 Credit = $2.17
Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $13,547
Total National Production: $25,739,584,762,993
Private Consumption: $551,645,836,054
Government Budget: $26,090,029,819,922
Administration (0%): $0
Welfare (0%): $0
Healthcare (4%): $1,022,729,168,941
Education (18%): $4,602,281,260,234
Religion and Spirituality (0%): $0
Defence (32%): $8,181,833,351,527
Law and Order (4%): $1,022,729,168,941
Commerce (14%): $3,579,552,091,293
Public Transport (22%): $5,625,010,429,175
Environment (0%): $0
Social Equality (6%): $1,534,093,753,411
Government Waste (2%): $521,800,596,398
Economic Grey Sector: 68.94%
Grey Sector Product: $57,124,002,840,728
Grey Sector Breakdown:
Basic Necessities: 15.71%
Healthcare: 14.94%
Education: 12.25%
Transportation: 11.48%
Luxuries: 14.56%
Recovered Product: $2,239,260,911,357
Worker Enthusiasm: 91%
Government Efficiency: 98%
Consumer Confidence: 96%
Unemployment: 2.41%
Population Growth Rate: 0.31%
Nation Age: 325 Days
Literacy: 100%
National Loyalty (Individual): 75%

hum...interesting... How did you get all thoses stats, exactly? can i see those of my nation too?

Click on one of those links that he put up for the GDP Calculators and in the boxes type in your nations name. Mine would be Shazbotdom, and what i get is below. But some GDP Calculators give more information than others. I would search around for whichever GDP Calculator best suits your needs and then go with it.

Population: 1,176,000,000
Civil Rights: Good
Economy: Strong
Political Freedoms: Few
Income Tax Rate: 100%
Exchange Rate: 1 Shazbot = $0.64
Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $7,092
Total National Production: $8,340,265,255,317
Private Consumption: $0
Government Budget: $9,065,505,712,301
Administration (6%): $500,415,915,319
Welfare (6%): $500,415,915,319
Healthcare (2%): $166,805,305,106
Education (8%): $667,221,220,425
Religion and Spirituality (1%): $83,402,652,553
Defence (10%): $834,026,525,532
Law and Order (30%): $2,502,079,576,595
Commerce (4%): $333,610,610,213
Public Transport (11%): $917,429,178,085
Environment (14%): $1,167,637,135,744
Social Equality (7%): $583,818,567,872
Government Waste (8%): $725,240,456,984
Economic Grey Sector: 40.33%
Grey Sector Product: $5,636,302,542,818
Grey Sector Breakdown:
Basic Necessities: 8.18%
Healthcare: 8.76%
Education: 7.89%
Transportation: 7.46%
Luxuries: 8.04%
Recovered Product: $1,555,619,501,818
Worker Enthusiasm: 77%
Government Efficiency: 92%
Consumer Confidence: 76%
Unemployment: 11.23%
Population Growth Rate: 0.5%
Nation Age: 201 Days
Literacy: 59%
National Loyalty (Individual): 46%

You dont really need the calculators, just try to do what seems reasonable for your nation. The GDP calculators are nice but

This calculator should be considered experimental. Like all calculators it is a tool and is in no way authoritative. Like any other tool of this nature it carries some of the bias of its creator. If you do not agree with the results (This means you Seocc.) do not send me a whiny email argueing why your economic system should make you the best. I don't care. Contribute to the community by making your own calculator instead and send me the URL. I'll gladly put it here along with the others.
dont get too attached to them. Heck i've been sponsoring my military for the past 5 months and i'm still at 0% defense budget while I have a gigantic airforce and rations served on silver platters(I personally believe this is fucked up).
If you RP the increase of your military budget or any other budget then that has priority over the stats from the calculators.

Note: Due to being in a big region, I cant use Thirdgeek. But I dont consider it as a problem.

that basic RP you mentioned seemed to be...... well awful , there are MUCH higher qualities, that sounds like a couple i have seen, where it turned into,

your military couldnt do that
yes it could
no it couldnt
well we'll wait untill it can
ok then
it still wont
yes it will
ok it can now
too bad ive left
wtf?!?!?

Depends what kind of RP you're getting into. Things labelled "character RP' usually concentrate on how a being deals with problems, other people, changing circumstances. "Tech RP" may sometimes be the waste-of-space you describe -- "My 34 Deathstars will beat your 4000 Neo-Nuclear Numbats any day, so there!", but in other hands can explore what effect a new tech can have on an existing society/'solid' alliances/first contact, etc. Some -- the UN Strangers' Bar, f'rinstance -- are just people hanging out in character. They give new RP-ers a chance to find out what works and what gets tea-trays hurled at them.

You're more likely to find the "who gives a damn about my stats, I know what my nation's like" RPs in NationStates and the more game-based in International Incidents, but, like everything about NS, every statement is followed by "not always, though".

An easy way in is to find a nation whose RPs you like and read whatever they're involved in. Another is to read the archives, or NSWiki. You have to do a bit of tasting -- like buying a new book.