NationStates Jolt Archive

So, I'm a rather large and populous country on NationStates (the game, NOT the forums) and I'd like to start working in the forums a bit more, but one thing I've never quite understood is how people come up with their calculations for military budgets or actualy troop numbers. Can anyone help me out with starting me on a path to establishing a standing military in a sense other than "Oh, yeah, I have one..."?

Thanks all!

Well, a good place to look is the stickied threads in II. They have numerous helpful topics in them.

In terms of a basic budget, you can get this from a calculator: try NSTracker (nstracker.retrograde.com). There are others, such as Pipian or Sunset -- look on NSWiki for more details.

Finally, you can simply look at some of the threads of other NSers, such as their factbooks. This will give you a basic idea of how others approach RPing militaries.

Well, a good place to look is the stickied threads in II. They have numerous helpful topics in them.

In terms of a basic budget, you can get this from a calculator: try NSTracker (nstracker.retrograde.com). There are others, such as Pipian or Sunset -- look on NSWiki for more details.

Finally, you can simply look at some of the threads of other NSers, such as their factbooks. This will give you a basic idea of how others approach RPing militaries.
I find that NSEconomy (http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com) generally has more information, but yes, it's a better idea to look at what other RPers do.

I appreciate you're over a year old in NS, so I don't want to come off as patronising, but these threads are still, to my mind, the most helpful collation of tips:

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=437653
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=357975

Sorry I can't be more helpful in terms of 'x number of helicopters' or whatever, but I'm in the process of assembling my military as well.

Also, an 'OOC: Advice/help' thread in II MIGHT not be frowned upon by the mods, although I'm not sure - you should check first (and I'm not suggesting you post such a thread until you've checked).

(Czardas: You do realize NSTracker shows all the same information as NSEconomy, except for regional info, and uses the data FROM NSEconomy? I find it to be much more helpful, although I don't use it hard and fast.)

(Czardas: You do realize NSTracker shows all the same information as NSEconomy, except for regional info, and uses the data FROM NSEconomy? I find it to be much more helpful, although I don't use it hard and fast.)
(It is more helpful in some ways, but I like the region data. However, NSTracker has its strong points, like the ability to compare nations. They provide an interesting study in contrasts.)