NationStates Jolt Archive

In NS, there's 3 basic types of land: Continental, Island, and Planetary or Other World. It seems many nations are Island, and that has really caught my attention. These nations claim to hand vast resources, when I can't figure out how.

Islands: Islands have terrific defensive abilities and can be good outposts for attacking continental targets, but they truely lack in resources. Unless you're on an island the same size as or bigger than North Carolina, you won't have many resources. There are many nations no bigger than Massechusettes claiming to have access to many resources, when that's just not possible, especially for their size. A better and more believable type of land mass would be a series of small to medium islands with one large one, or a very large island since Hawaii doesn't have that much access to oil, steel, and antimatter.

Continents: These leave for much more access to resources and should be more widely accepted, but sadly it isn't. If you're living on a continent you're more likely to have more resources and have more space to build your cities and expand your nation. But since it has borders it's a tad harder to defend.

Planets: FT, of course, nations are usually nations that use this type of land. Using planets instead of Earth-grounded nations lets you gain many more resources and you're not divided by borders. But it costs a lot to keep a Future-Tech nation rolling despite its large access to resources. Which is why I killed one of my planets to drain it of its resources.

This is something that has always really boggled my mind since a penninsula attatched to an ally is as easy to defend as an Island.

You might be pleased/not interested in the slightest to hear that Taerkasten is a landlocked nation! No oceans! Nowhere near any oceans! Doesn't even have a navy! Magic.

The problem with the whole thing is borders, especially for us completely unknown nations -- not so much defending them but deciding where they should BE. Who your neighbours are. Where your nation is. When I came to draw up my map, I had no neighbours and nobody heard of me, so I've just suggested that the area surrounding Taerkasten is a very unpleasant no-man's-land, which pretty much fits their style anyway. And as I haven't specified a particular place in the world, that leaves it open to interpretation... but you probably couldn't get away with that very often.

I have two other nations, and it was far easier to just put them on islands because there was no need to consider who was nearby, where they were on the planet, and suchlike.

What I did when I was still MT for my map was put my nation on a penninsula with an offshore island and just didn't fill in my borders.

While I'm new around here, islands that claim all those vast resources would be more realistic in saying they got them from trade. Islands, with all the natural ports and, in especually strategic areas or areas stopped by a lot, is perfect for trade. Like with me, part of my history shows just how stratigec my location is which makes it a perfect trade outpost. I'm trying to make this as realistic as I can.

That's what I've been trying to figure out myself.

I'm new and my nation is an island about the size of South Carolina, give or take a few square miles and I'm starting to try to expland with trade, kind of like Britian did, minus the eventual take over, at least, until my armed forces are built up. The point is I have no clue how to draw my borders, who I'm near, ect ect. Actually, if someone could help me out, that'd be great.

You'd have to be TO and FROM somehwere in order to actually be involved with trade, or in a position where it's easy for you to get to numerous nations.

For modern tech I'd say archipelago, peninsula, landlocked or continental. Fantasy can have this as well and floating or submerged. Future tech means you can add spaceship, planet, solar system or galaxy in addition to the landtypes mentioned before.

Hey I have a continent with no borders, since I occupy all of it. Basically, a big huge island. Isn't that nice?

Forgive my ignorance, i am rather new here, but where does all this take place? i cant see any maps or any physical things like this anywhere, all i have is the textual page of my nation and for my region. Where are the maps and things?

Forgive my ignorance, i am rather new here, but where does all this take place? i cant see any maps or any physical things like this anywhere, all i have is the textual page of my nation and for my region. Where are the maps and things?

Head to the NationStates (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=1223) or International Incidents (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=1230) forum and just... use your imagination. Read some of the roleplay threads, and some of the stickied threads, to get an idea of what it's all about. And if you want a map, just make one up in Photoshop or MS Paint, or get someone kind enough to make one up for you based on your description.

I share an Europe-similar (But bigger in scale) continent with some others at the Silberunion (The map is almost done) I think that perhaps some of the nations that use Islands ment their islands to be big, like the British Islands, and that may lead to some confusion when it comes to resources, but I'm getting outside my field of expertise there so that's my little contribution to this thing, if it helps.

I hope that this will help you all in your mapmaking decisions. A penninsula cut off with mountains is a very goo position.