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by The Pacifican Support Service of The Extended Guide. . 2,029 reads.

The Extended Guide- Dispatch One- NationStates Gameplay

The Extended Guide
Part One: NationStates Gameplay

Go Back to the Master dispatch.


1.1 Nation Page

The nation page is where you can find essential information about your Nationstates nation. At first glance, there’s already a description about your nation that reflects the recent actions you as a government have taken and the various aspects of your wonderful nation. Things mentioned include the population size, the specialization of the economy and even the psychology and behaviour of your people. Here you would also see the following;

1. Civil Rights, Economy & Political Freedom Ratings
These three are affected mainly by the issues that you choose to solve in your tenure in NS. If you are curious as to how these three components are faring in your run as a government, feel free to always check on these three bars.

2. Influence
Now Influence is a subtle part of your nation. It mostly correlates to the region you are in. Do not worry as this does not have game-changing effects if your influence is high or low. You gain a set amount of influence per endorsement and per position that you hold in the region (such as Regional Officers). Don’t get too caught up on it unless you’re looking to rise through the ranks!


1.1.1 People, Gov’t and Economy

The People tab describes the leading causes of death inside your nation via a pie chart. The ways people die in your nation can vary from 'Old Age' to 'Lost In Wilderness'. You can affect the leading causes of death just by answering issues, with the answers being a key factor to how people will die. Leading causes of death tend to be random as is impacts of issues.

The Government tab shows the nature of your national expenditure. They are classified under:

  • Administration

  • Defense

  • Education

  • Environment

  • Healthcare

  • Industry

  • International Aid

  • Law & Order

  • Public Transport

  • Social Policy

  • Spirituality

  • and Welfare


It also shows the total expenditure, as well as a percentage of GDP, spent on your nation. Answering issues contribute to the distribution of the money amongst the eleven aspects of the nation and will not spawn any additional category as the categories are fixed.

The Economy tab displays your total GDP and the wages of the Poorest 10% and Richest 10% in your nation. The pie chart shows the nature of industries residing in your nation and is divided into three categories - Government, State-Owned, and Private. Like the People and Government tabs, the nature of your industries are directly affected by your answers for Issues.


1.1.2 Rank & Trend

Ranks are a very good way of determining how your nation stacks up against the others. In the rank page, your best statistic will be displayed on top while the worst at the bottom. You can toggle the display from actual position to percentile to see how your nation fares both at the regional and world level. You can see your best statistics displayed on your nation page at the very bottom of the description, with your Top 3 just below your Banner.

The trends page is more towards to those who want to keep track of their nation’s progress over time. The default display shows the growth of Political Freedom, Economy and Civil Rights on the graph, with their growth over time being displayed. Specific statistics can also be kept track of and one can switch to a specific stat on the upper right corner of the site when in the Trends page. Hover the mouse over specific parts of the graph to see the actual numerical value.


1.1.3 Miscellaneous (Influence & Top 10/Top 5)

There are a number of ways that the game uses the term “Influence” to describe a quantity that has an impact on gameplay mechanics. To start, we’ll discuss what influence is from a very technical standpoint--how to get it, and what it’s for--and then we’ll finish up with what the labels you will see in various places mean.

Influence is a statistic that can be viewed on one’s nation page, clicking the TREND icon, and then navigating to “Influence” in the drop-down menu.


Once you load the next page, you’ll find a few pieces of information, including your regional and world ranks. For now, focus on the number called “Soft Power Disbursement Rating”, or SPDR for short. That number represents your earned influence in the game. There’s not a lot you have to do for you to earn influence in the game. You simply have to log in once every seven days. That’s it! Just for doing that you will get one point every 12 hours, at each of the game’s updates. Now, if you join the World Assembly and gain endorsements from your friends, or the leadership of the region, you will gain an additional point at each update for each endorsement. So, if you’re in the WA, and you have five endorsements, you will get five points for those, plus the one for yourself, making a total of 6 points each update. In User Created Regions, this number will only ever increase, but because of changes made to the game, in the Game Created Regions like the Pacific you will be capped at a total of six month’s worth of influence as if you had 10 endorsements. That works out to be 4015 SPDR. In other words, you’ll continue to gain influence until you are at least at that point. Pretty neat! But what’s it used for?

If you become a Delegate or Regional Officer in the game, you can use this to perform various actions—putting a password on a region, or banning and ejecting nations from a region. If you are not Delegate or Regional Officer, you can’t spend Influence. It will cost a Delegate roughly half of your Influence in order to ban and eject you. So, if you have 100 SPDR, a Delegate would have to spend 50 SPDR to ban you from the region. That is the technical side of Influence.

Influence is also referred to in another way. Individual nations have an Influence rank within their region. This simply refers to how much of the total influence that exists in a region is held by that nation. You’ll find the label on your nation page near the top. There are currently 31 ranks. From least to greatest they are:

  • Zero,

  • Unproven

  • Hatchling

  • Newcomer

  • Nipper

  • Minnow

  • Sprat

  • Shoeshiner

  • Page

  • Squire

  • Apprentice

  • Vassal

  • Truckler

  • Handshaker

  • Duckspeaker

  • Envoy

  • Diplomat

  • Ambassador

  • Auxiliary

  • Negotiator

  • Contender

  • Instigator

  • Dealmaker

  • Enforcer

  • Eminence Grise

  • Powerbroker

  • Power

  • Superpower

  • Dominator

  • Hegemony

  • and Hermit.


These don’t really mean much, but can be a quick way of seeing how much Influence you have in comparison to others in the region.

One neat feature in NationStates is a badge/achievement system based on your national stats. Each stat is ranked in the region and in the world, with each badge given appropriately based on category. Here is a screenshot of Emperor Emeritus Aleisyr’s badges at the time of writing.

At Label A, you see “Top 1%” and if you look carefully, the first badge has a golden outline. That means that Aleisyr is ranked #1 in the world. What an achievement! The other gold badges, labelled B, mean he is ranked in the top 1% of the world. There are ~170,000 nations as of this writing, which means to earn a Top 1% badge, your nation must be ranked among the first 1,700 nations. These are ranked from highest to lowest. Label C refers to categories that are in the Top 5% of the world. Letter D, likewise, is the Top 10%. There are other badges that can be earned. Letter E shows that Aleisyr purchased the Postmaster General upgrade, and he has also found 8 easter eggs—hidden achievements in the game for performing various actions. Pretty cool! In addition to making your nation page decorative, ranking highly in stats usually help you out in special event games, such as the Challenge Mode listed below.


1.1.4 Challenge Mode

Ever wished for going to war using your perfectly designed nation? Fortunately, there's a way to do that. Well… kind of.
NationStates introduced a new sub-game on its 10th anniversary, called Challenge (or Challenge Mode). In it, you can pit your nation against others (one at a time) and the game will compare random stats from both (again, one stat per round). The one with the higher stats wins the round. Some stat wins are determined by a hidden number embedded in the game code, in the event of a tie, like Number of Endorsements. The overall winner is the nation winning the majority of rounds.

This section of the Guide endeavours to explain this game.
Let us go about it by getting to know the various characteristics.

  • Getting There :

    1. Log in to your nation.

    2. Go to any other nation's home page (main page with all the description).

    3. Click on the target symbol at the right end or bottom (below the political freedom tab)

    4. This will take you to the Challenge page which also has a brief explanation of how-to-play. (top right)

    5. Here's the direct link

  • Options :
    You have a lot of options in choosing your opponent directly from the Challenge page.

    1. Matchmaker - This option pits you against a random nation at the same level as you.

    2. Random Region - It pits you against any random nation from your region.

    3. Random World - Same as random region, but for the world.

    4. Or you can choose your own opponent by going to its nation page and clicking the target icon as explained above.

    5. Levels :

      1. Levels are what decide the number of rounds you play against your opponent. Each nation has a level, that is increasable and decreasable.

      2. Your nation badges (Top 10%, 5%, & 1%) decide your base level. Gaining a badge increases level by 1. Vice Versa for losing a badge.

      3. Championship points, which you gain for winning a challenge, also increase level. These are what decode your rank in Challenge.

    6. The Rounds :

    7. The rounds are well explained on the Challenge page. Even if one doesn't understand it, playing a challenge or two shall make everything clear.

    8. Nevertheless, here are the basics :

      1. Nations with same level play 5 rounds.

      2. Nations with unequal levels play additional rounds equal to their level difference.

      3. Leading even by one round wins the challenge.

      4. Same wins on both sides is a draw. You can opt for a rematch or return to main page

    Make sure to check out the onsite help and how-to-play too. Moreover, feel free to ask if you need help.
    Have fun in Challenge!


  • 1.2 Issues

    Every so often, nations will receive issues automatically, and decisions made after an issue will directly impact the state of a nation. By default, nations receive five issues a day, however, on the Settings page on your nation, you can alter this to 2 issues per day, 1 per day, or 1 per two days. Additionally, new nations receive issues at a much faster rate than older nations, and this rate goes down as population rises. A nation will stop receiving issues if it is in Vacation Mode or if it has amassed 5 issues.

    As you progress through answering issues, the game will gradually adapt to your playstyle and impacts can become more predictable. But exercise caution—a wrong click may change everything, so watch out!


    1.2.1 Choices

    Each issue has at least two choices that the leader can choose from, and the amount of choices available varies. Each issue will have a specific problem to be addressed in your nation, and the choices will have solutions presented to the owner of the nation. The owner of the nation may choose any of the choices, or, alternatively, choose to dismiss an issue. Once an option is chosen the issue will be resolved and have immediate effects on a nation.


    1.2.2 Impacts and Repercussions

    Once an issue is resolved, a page will be shown with the result of the choice the owner of the nation chooses. Additionally, at the bottom of the page, statistics will be shown regarding changes in nation policy, changes in nation classification, changes in ranks of political freedom, civil rights, and economy, and finally rises and drops in categories such as public transport, where either a positive or negative percentage will be shown to signify drops and rises on the scale.

    If a nation meets or exceeds a certain point in a category, a Banner may be given to the nation, which can then be displayed on the nation’s page.
    Additionally, if a nation chooses to dismiss an issue, no visible changes will occur in their nation.


    1.2.3 Special Issues

    Special issues encompass issues that unlock abilities, as well as chain issues.

    Special issues are given to nations with an available issue slot when they reach a certain population milestone. Once a nation reaches 250 million, 750 million, or 1 billion citizens, an issue will be given allowing for a capital city to be chosen, a nation leader to be chosen, or for a national religion to be chosen, in that order. If the choice to proceed with instituting these in a nation is chosen, abilities in the settings page will be unlocked enabling the player to edit names.

    Chain issues are issues that are given to nations by chance. When such an issue is received, a nation will receive another issue later depending on the choices made on the previous one, relating to the last issue that was decided on. The issue chain will not continue if one of those issues is dismissed.


    1.3 Telegrams

    Telegrams are a method of privately communicating between nations on NationStates. You can send telegrams using the Telegrams page, or, alternatively, at the bottom of a nation page, where there will be a button reading “Write Telegram”.

    The Telegrams page additionally allows for a user to search for and read telegrams sent by other nations. Telegrams are organized by default into 3 folders: the Inbox, the Archives, and Sent Telegrams, all of which can be accessed. The Archive and Inbox folders each hold up to 20 telegrams, after which point they are deleted from the inbox to make room for new telegrams.


    1.3.1 Customization

    The telegrams page has different preferences that a user can choose, based on what best suits them. This can be accessed using the Preferences link on the Telegrams page. These customizations include Display Preferences for the telegrams page, Filters for telegrams that will be sent for you, and an Ignore List.


    1.3.1.1 Blocking Recruitment Telegrams

    Recruitment telegrams are telegrams sent specifically to try and convince a nation to move to a different region. New nations are flooded with these telegrams, and older nations also receive them periodically. To prevent this, they can be blocked using the Filter on the Telegram Preferences page. Selecting “Block All” under Recruitment will prevent future recruitment telegrams being sent to your nation.


    1.3.2 Upgrades

    The NationStates Store page allows users to purchase upgrades to their Inboxes. Upgrades include new features such as a Deleted Telegrams folder, the ability to hold up to an unlimited amount of telegrams, the ability to create new folders, and telegram stamps. Telegram stamps allow a user to send mass telegrams to nations.


    1.4 Region page

    The region page contains all a region’s general information. A Founder and/or World Assembly Delegate nation will be displayed under the region name, as well as the region’s flag (if applicable) and the World Factbook Entry of the region. The World Factbook Entry can be created by the Founder, WA Delegate, or by any Regional Officer (RO) appointed, and it showcases a custom text, the ROs of a region, and any pinned dispatches the region may have.

    Under the World Factbook Entry one can find embassies that are established within the region, tags that label a region, a regional power indicator (this shows how much influence a region has compared to other regions), and the daily World Census report, where nations are ranked from highest to lowest comparatively to other nations in the region on a graph according to World Census data. Officers that possess Poll authority can additionally create polls that will be showcased on the region page, which will appear above the Regional Message Board.


    1.4.1 Regional Message Boards

    Every region has a Regional Message Board, which is viewable when scrolled to the bottom of the region page. It can also be seen in a forum view format, where only messages are viewable and you can click through pages, instead of clicking the option to see older messages on the region page. When composing a message, BBCode such as bolding text, italicizing text, underlining text, tagging nations, and tagging regions is available. NationStates allows you to both Like and quote previous messages, and Officers with Communications authority as well as NationStates moderators can suppress messages. After posting a message, users have the option of deleting a message or editing a message.


    1.4.1.1 Regional Message Board Roleplay

    NationStates is a nation simulation game and hence, it is obvious that we would have Roleplay (RP) here. The Pacific has two platforms for RP: the offsite forums, and the Regional Message Board (RMB). Let's look at the RMB Roleplay.

    By now you ought to have an excellent grasp on Stats. If not, read the relevant sections of this guide first.

    The RMB RP is based on your nation's Stats and Policies (more on Policies further down). On top of this, you can add your lore, unique characteristics, governments, technologies, or animals. The RP is based in the current era, and nations generally have the equivalent of Modern-Tech. This may vary based on individual stats, but you get the idea.

    Like all systems, the RP has simple rules that need to be followed to better RP with others and hence have the most fun. Read the RMB RP Guidebook, which contains our rules, and explanations on using stats. You can find it anytime on our region's home page.

    Passive RP (guidebook terminology) is more dominant on the RMB, usually with multiple plots existing simultaneously. You can also have a solo-RP with your own fictional elements, or you can join an ongoing plot with permission from its players or by contacting the Overseer, who'll then arrange it for you.

    Have a look in the RMB to get an idea about how the roleplay is done. Note that there is no set approach to RP and you are free to come up with your own methods. Everyone has their own style and you don't have to copy anyone. That said, our RMB is one of the friendliest places in NS and have no inhibitions in posting there and asking for help.


    1.4.2 Administration

    Administration can be viewed by all nations, if in a more limited sense than one with permissions can access. The different permissions that enable a player to edit the region page are designated by the site. Three types of regional positions can use the Administration page. In a Game Created Region (GCR), only the World Assembly Delegate (WAD) or a Regional Officer (RO) can utilize the page. In a User Created Region (UCR), a Founder has absolute control over the region and does not require any permissions on what they can do with the region so long as the UCR was created with an Executive Founder.

    This is a short guide on how to navigate and operate the Administration page of your region.


    Region Page:

    To access administration, click the admin icon.




    Administration Page:

    Regional Officers:

    “I want officers!”

    To appoint a Regional Officer (RO), click “Appoint New Officer.” From there, click on “Select a Nation.” There are the standard offices with set abilities to choose from. One may also choose the Custom field, which will result in this:

    “I chose custom. Now what?”

    First, name the Office in the first field. In the second field, select whichever controls you wish for your Regional Officer to possess.

    • “Appearance” allows your selected RO to edit the flag, content, and superficial aspects of the administration panel.

    • “Border Control” allows for banning or banjecting nations in the region. If you are a WA Delegate rather than a Founder, you must have held the position for 26 hours to appoint an Officer with Border Control. You may appoint one nation for every 26 hours you have been a Delegate.

    • “Communications” pertains to Telegrams, which can be regional or recruitment and can suppress Regional Message Board posts.

    • “Embassies” allows the RO to allow embassy posting, accept new embassies, or propose new embassies.

    • Lastly, “Polls” allows the RO to make polls for the region.

    Appearance

    “So I see a text box now. What’s up with that?”

    The World Factbook Entry (WFE) is the regional information page. On the WFE, information about the region is typically input by the Delegate, Founder, or a RO. Founders who do not wish to allow changes to the WFE by other individuals can take away executive Delegate authority and/or remove Appearance from the abilities of existing RO. Code is allowed, images are not enabled, and there is no limit to the number of changes one wishes to enact in any given time span. The code enabled is BBcode. The guide applying to that can be found here: [insert link]

    “I want a new flag”

    A flag is uploaded from a computer or phone and is resized to fit the site requirements automatically. All flags are subject to the site rules—no images with illegal content are permitted. Anyone with Appearance permissions can change the flag.

    “What about Dispatches?”

    Dispatches are either custom written for the region or imported from existing Dispatches or Factbooks. More information on Dispatches may be found here. Click on the following to access options for a Dispatch:

    “What on earth is a tag?”

    Tags are used to identify the region’s attributes. You may add or remove as many as you wish. They are added manually, one-by-one. They are removed also in that manner. The ability to change tags is granted to anyone with Appearance controls. Keep in mind that when you are recruiting, you may not recruit from a region without the “Recruiter Friendly” tag.

    (As a warning, having the Fascist tag is guaranteed to result in a raid at some point.)

    Embassies:

    Embassies are controlled by those with Embassy permissions. They are usually indicative of relations with another region. One can request an Embassy by visiting the administration page of another region, or by accepting an invitation which can be found in your regional controls. Some people enjoy collecting embassies, others only accept embassies from allies.

    Communications:

    Yes, there are a number of controls for Telegrams (TGs). There are the custom settings for the region (setting a regional welcome TG), and settings to send out manual recruitment TGs (these are only really employed by UCRs, but can be used by GCRs who believe recruitment is necessary). Controls can be edited to send TGs to newly founded nations, nations who leave the region, all nations within the region. TGs which intend recruitment must be marked as such, or there will be modly action.

    Border Control:

    Border Control settings belong exclusively to a Founder, an Executive World Assembly Delegate, and any Regional Officer with the appropriate permissions. A Founder has unlimited controls which do not require influence to utilize. However, any other position wishing to use Border Controls is required to have sufficient influence. To find more information on influence calculation, see this guide: [insert link].

    “I want a password!”

    Passwords prevent nations from entering, particularly those without visible passwords. A visible password is possible to leak due to the fact that any nation in the region can see it. Founders do not require influence to set a password. All other positions do.

    “So, I want to ban this guy…”

    Again, influence is necessary in all cases except that of the Founder. Any nation, including yourself, may be banned. You can choose to ban in other locations, but the Administration page is also sufficient, as it enables you to estimate how much influence it will cost you to ban a problematic nation.

    Polls:

    To set up a poll, one merely clicks on the “New Poll” option. The result should appear as such:


    1.4.3 BBCode

    The technical name for formatting codes on NationStates is NSCode, but most of you will be more familiar with the term BBCode. There are several places where such code can be used, and each example will be followed by D for Dispatch, T for Telegrams, R for RMB, W for WFEs, and P for WA Proposals. If a code can be used in every location, it will be denoted by E. All tags will be in square brackets [ ] and will need both an open bracket [ ] and a close bracket [/]. In addition, you can stack multiple tags on the same piece of text, but be sure to close them in the reverse order of which they were opened. In other words, if you used the bold tag, then the italics tag, you’d close the italics tag, then close the bold tag.

    Text Formatting Codes (E):
    You can make your text bold by surrounding the text with the b tag.
    This text is Bold.
    You can make your text italicized with the i tag.
    This text is Italicized!
    You can underline your text with the u tag.
    This text is underlined
    You can strike out text with the strike tag.
    This text shows a strike out.
    You can use superscripts and subscripts with the sup and sub tags, respectively.
    Here is a Superscript and here is a subscript example.

    If you want to show someone an example of your code, but do not want it to automatically turn into formatted text, you can use the pre tag (E).

    This text will not format even if I use [b]bold[/b], [i]italics[/i] or [u]any[/u] other tags.
    .

    Useful NS Codes (E):
    You can refer to Nations and Regions by using the nation and region tags.
    The nation tag has 3 variants: nation, nation=short, and nation=noflag, and the latter two are able to be combined into nation=short+noflag. Nation will include the pre-title of a nation, short will just include the nation name and noflag will remove the little flag icon from the mention. An even faster way to get the nation tag is to use @nationname, and the game will automatically create the tag for you.
    East Durthang or East Durthang or East Durthang and finally East Durthang.
    You can link to a region by enclosing the region name with the region tag: The Pacific is the best region in the game.
    There are two WA related tags, proposal and resolution, that can help you campaign for, or discuss things related to the WA. You can use these tags everywhere. To use [proposal, you’ll need the proposal ID. It looks like this: [proposal=ProposalID]Here is a proposal[/proposal].
    To use the resolution tag, you’ll need the the Council ID (GA, SC, or UN) and Resolution ID (#X) which looks like this: Some Text Here.

    Sometimes you want to hide your content to save space. In that event, you can use the Spoiler tag (E). You can either go with the default tag,

    Like this!
    or use a modifier to customize the text on the button like this
    To show hidden text here
    .

    You can also use links with the url tag. There are Internal links (E) and External links (D, W). To use this, you put your Link text here. If the link is internal, you can omit the tag altogether and it will format for you.

    You can also use NSCode to make bulleted lists (E). The tags are list and *. Using the list tag will also let you set what kind of bullets you’d like to use. Left empty, your bullets will be standard, but the other options are 1, a, i, A, I. This will create lists with numbers, lowercase letters, lowercase roman numerals, uppercase letters, and uppercase roman numerals, respectively. The * tag is used for each item in the list. In addition, you can nest a list within a list to switch which kind of bullet you are using.

    Some places allow the use of color (D, W). The color tag (also works with colour) can take both names of colors and hexadecimal color codes. Red text or Orange text.

    In the RMB, you can use the quote tag without using the quote button, but you’ll need the author and post ID to do this. [quote=nationname;postID]Here is some text that I said.[/quote].

    The rest of the codes only apply to dispatches. You can highlight some text by using the background and background-block. Again, you can choose the color by name or hexadecimal. Use background for a single line or a few words, and use background-block for longer sections of text consisting of multiple lines.

    You might also want to change the font itself, in which case you’ll want the font tag. You can specify which font you want, or multiple in the event your font does not display on someone else’s screen--just separate them by commas and put them in order of preference. This is courier font.

    You can align your text with the align or center/centre tags. The options for the align tag are left, right, center, and justify.

    If you want to put an image in your dispatch, you can do so with the img tag. [img]url.jpg[/img].

    You can float images or text with the float tag. This lets you, for example, surround text by images on both sides.

    Text
    would put the text on the right side of the page. And whatever came after would be in the same line, but in the left side of the page.

    You can also make nice looking boxes with the box tag. These cannot be nested to make a box within a box. You can, however, use a sidebar tag to create a second box that will float on the right side of the page.

    You can indent your text with the tab tag, and the number of pixels you would like to indent said text. This text is indented.

    You can create anchors in your dispatch so that you can link to specific parts of the dispatch. You create the anchor by using the set, and then you can link to that spot with the url tag, substituting #NAMEOFANCHOR where the URL went previously: Go here!.

    Finally, there are tables available in dispatches. You use the table tag to open a table, a tr tag to create a row, and then td tags within tr tags to create the cells. You can choose to have borders or get rid of them by using

    . [table]

    First row, first cell

    First row, second cell

    Second row, first cell

    Second row, second cell

    Third row, first cell

    Third row, second cell

    Be careful to make sure you put the same number of td tags inside each set of tr tags.

    That’s all there is to know about NSCode, but if you need a more in-depth, visual version of this, there’s an excellent dispatch.


    1.5 World Assembly

    The World Assembly is the world's governing body, à la the United Nations. It also is the main way through which Delegates can be elected. There are three major functions that the World Assembly serves.

    First, members of the World Assembly can propose (so long as they have more than 2 endorsements) legislation to the General Assembly or Security Council. The former primarily deals with international legislation. The latter primarily deals with regional politics and community recognition of players.

    Second, in every region, the Delegate is the person with the most endorsements. Those endorsements are effectively votes given by WA members.

    Third, in every region, the number of endorsements a person has determines the rate at which they gain something called 'influence', which determines the cost to ejecting and banning some person and can be spent on regional access actions.


    1.5.1 Acquiring WA Membership

    While you may only have one nation in the World Assembly at some time, acquiring WA membership is easy. You will need to link your nation to an email. Then, simply go to the WA page and click apply. After receiving the verification email, click the link, and you will be a WA member. The game has a number of sophisticated checks to determine whether someone has multiple World Assembly nations. The administration team is very wary of releasing information on those checks, but all indications show they are reasonably effective.


    1.5.2 Endorsing

    Endorsing a nation is quite simple. If you are a WA member, simply go to the page showing the nation you want to endorse, scroll to the bottom, and click the button saying 'Endorse'.
    To protect our nation from invaders, the Pacific mandates that you endorse our emperor: East Durthang and if you wish: Xoriet, Jar Wattinree, Samasbhi and The Seeker of Power. Two of our regional officers use their WA account in our military so may or may not be a member of the WA. They are: Marinas Island and Shnailand you can endorse them if they are currently in the WA on their main nations.

    To safeguard our region, nations can have no more than 10 endorsements. Exarchate can have 25 and Senators can have 100. If you get pushed over the endorsement cap—don’t worry, you won’t get punished, but ask them to unendorse you, and if they still haven’t the PG will deal with it. Remember you are not allowed to actively ask for endorsements, as this could get you banned from the region


    1.5.3 Voting

    From time to time, the World Assembly will have votes. There, there are two classes of voters: Delegates and nations. Delegates receive a number of votes equal to the number of endorsements they have, plus one, for their own nation. Nations all receive one vote. These votes are cast in World Assembly page. There are two chambers, the General Assembly and Security Council, both of which these votes are applicable in. Delegates also serve a secondary function in determining whether or not a proposal can reach the general voting populace. This is a screening function, requiring that legislation gain approval from 6% of Delegates before coming to a general vote. As of this writing, out of 1,368 Delegates, 6% means 83.


    1.5.4 General Assembly

    The General Assembly is the world's legislative body. There, international legislation is debated and voted upon. The Assembly has passed legislation on many different topics, ranging from prohibitions on slavery, protections for humanitarian aid workers, rights for the people to petition the government and express themselves, to protecting the environment.


    1.5.5 Security Council

    The Security Council is a body with three powers: Commend, Condemn, and Liberation. Commend and Condemn are resolutions which give nations or regions badges. Generally, people consider these to be rewards for playing the game well in a good or evil manner. Thus, prominent raiders are rewarded for their skill with Condemn badges. And people like GA resolution authors or defenders are rewarded for their skill writing resolutions with Commend badges. Liberations strike down delegate imposed passwords. It does not affect Founder-imposed passwords. And it is generally used to aid in the liberation of regions which have imposed passwords.


    1.5.6 Authoring a GA/SC Resolution

    The General Assembly has a relatively complicated ruleset, which has a number of requirements. You can read it here., The people in charge of determining whether something meets the requirements of that ruleset are the members of the GA Secretariat, also known as GenSec. Some of the more complicated of these rules are the Category and Originality rules. The Category rule requires that the text of some proposal match the description of the category under which it is submitted. Thus, a proposal dealing with food waste cannot be classified under Human Rights, which is described as 'A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights'. The Originality rules are two-fold. But in summary, a proposal cannot violate or duplicate the provisions of another one. For example, as the World Assembly has legislation banning slavery, there is no need to ban slavery once again. The Security Council is more simple and has four rules. They are prohibitions on commending or condemning staff members, plagiarism and duplication, a requirement that there be an operative clause and a requirement that texts be written so to represent the opinion of the World Assembly. If you have a proposal that you want to send before either chamber, it is recommended that you post that proposal to that chamber's forum for comment. Proposals can be submitted without such comment, but due to the many intricacies of the ruleset, it can be hard to figure all of these out without assistance. However for both chambers, after submission, a proposal must gain approvals from delegates before it can be voted upon. There is a few-days-long limit on how long proposals remain up for approvals. As nowhere near six per cent of delegates regularly check the queue (and fewer still will approve), you must campaign for your proposal.

    There are three ways to campaign for a proposal. The first is manual campaigning, which is effectively the same as sending a telegram one after another for hours. Unless you do not value your time, this is infeasible. The second method is to use stamps. This is relatively cheap but requires that you have a non-zero amount of money to spend. The third is to use the API. That is probably too technical for this, but you may want to refer to this guide After writing a telegram politely asking delegates to approve your proposal, it will take around a day or two until it gains the necessary number of approvals. When the floor is empty and your proposal is the first proposal in the queue that meets quorum, it will be promoted to the floor and the vote will begin.


    1.5.7 World Assembly Trivia
    Did you know the World Assembly used to be called the United Nations? For the first six years of NationStates’ existence (from 2002 to 2008) member nations were called U.N. Members, nearly 244 U.N. resolutions were passed, and the WA page url (page=un) came from this era. That changed when, on April 1st 2008, the creator of the game, Max Barry, received a Cease-and-Desist letter from the actual United Nations regarding NS’ usage of their name! How cool is that!

    You can read more about it here.



    1.6 The World

    The World is the page where you'll find the featured region of the day, plus that day's world census rankings, and an activity section for the entire game.

    Search Bar
    The most important feature of this page is the Search Feature at its top. The obvious "magnifying glass" search symbol at its right top (with a search bar when on PC) is the best tool of this page.

    How to use the Search Bar :

    1. Click on the Search Bar (or the search symbol on phone) at the top right of the World Page.

    2. Type the name of the region or nation that you want to search. For nations, only type the name and not the pretitle.

    3. Suggestions will appear in the drop-down table as you type.

    4. Click on a suggestion if you find what you wanted, or click search.

    5. The results will display nations and/or regions that match your exact search term.

    This function is especially useful for searching & moving regions and searching for nations.

    Featured Region
    One region is selected at random from all existing regions to be the featured region for the day. Its World Factbook Entry (WFE), number of nations, Founder, and Delegate are mentioned.

    World Rankings
    This section just displays the world's top nations in the stat chosen for the day. For instance, if today's stat is Weather, the top few nations will be shown here. A similar section exists on each region page.

    That's all there is to the World Page. To access the page, click on the "The World" link at the left tab, or the expanded menu (click on the 3 horizontal lines) on phone. Just in case someone didn't know.



    1.7 Dispatches

    You might have seen various articles onsite about various topics ranging from guides to campaigns. The very guide that you are now reading has been published by a nation and can be accessed by navigating to the second symbol on a nation's page, right below your motto, called Dispatches.

    So what are these dispatches?

    When you click on the [factbook image] symbol, it takes you to the Create Dispatch page , where you can choose between Factbook, Bulletin, Account, and Meta. It is explained there as to what each of these are for, but basically, Factbook & Account are for In-Character things while Bulletin & Meta are for Out Of Character (regional or general non-nation) stuff.

    Some examples are :
    Dispatches (OOC) (with categories)
    The RMB Roleplay Guidebook which is a Bulletin->Policy.
    How to join the WA which is a Meta->Reference.
    Factbooks (IC) (with categories)
    Administrative Offices (Factbook->Politics)
    Nation Wiki (Factbook->Overview)

    Creating one is easy. Just type your content in a nice readable way and you're good to go! Don't miss the BBCode section of this Guide if you want to do those cool looking dispatches with index, tables, images and stuff. Have fun, and don't hesitate to ask for help.



    1.8 Settings

    In this section, we are going to look at the Settings page. This is the place where you can set the parts of your nation that are unique to you.

    We'll first look at how to access it :
    In the sidebar present at the right side (press the 3 horizontal bars in mobile version), you'll find "Settings". Click (or touch) on it to enter the Settings page.

    Once here, you can set any of these:

    • Pretitle (or Classification)

    • Motto

    • Currency

    • Animal

    • Capital

    • Leader

    • Religion

    • Flag

    • and Banner

    This is easy, as everything is on a single page, and you just need to scroll down to find the part that you want to edit or change.
    Let us look at all the elements sequentially :
    Nation Name -
    Your nation name is unchangeable once the nation is created. However, you can change the capitalization however you want. Just click on the box to type.
    Pretitle -

    1. The Pretitle is the part of your nation name that comes before the name. You set it while nation creation itself, like "Commonwealth", "Empire", "Republic", among others. It will look like this : The ...Pretitle... of nation name.

    2. Example - The Empire of Samasbhi. (With pretitle Empire)

    3. Click on the box at "Classification" to set it.

    4. After reaching a population of 500 million, the pretitle dropdown menu disappears, and you get to have a custom pretitle (type it in the box).

    5. "The" and "of" are unchangeable, so titles like "The Great" will show as The The Great of *nation-name*" with the bolded "the" and "of" permanent.

    6. So to get The Seventh Dimensional Realm of Samasbhi, I just type "Seventh Dimensional Realm" in the box.

    Flag -
    The flag section has a drop down menu where you can choose from the flags of real life nations. Else, you can upload your own custom flag ! Just follow these steps :

    1. You need an image for your flag. Create it yourselves, take one from the internet, or go click one. It's up to you.

    2. Now that you have selected an image, you need to save it on your device, in order to upload. Name it such that you can locate it easily. Image links don't work, so don't waste time there.

    3. Below the grey (blank) flag image, you'll find a "Create Custom Flag" option. Click on it.

    4. This will open a window displaying files &/or folders on your device. Navigate to where you have stored the image, and select it.

    5. This should upload your image file, and show it in the blank flag's space. That's it. You now have a custom flag ! Don't close the page. You need to press the "Update" button at the page's end to save the changes.

    6. If the image doesn't show, or you get some error, it is probably because of the following-

      1. You accidentally chose the wrong file (which may not be an image).

      2. Your image format is not PNG, JPG, or JPEG, which are the only formats supported. Try using a format converter.

      3. Your image size is too large. It should preferably be less than 1 MB.

      4. The universe doesn't want you to have a custom flag. But don't lose hope. Try the whole thing again.

    Unlockables -
    The following things are unlocked on reaching a certain nation size, that is, a certain population.

    1. Capital - Unlocked on reaching 250 million citizens.

    2. Custom Pretitle - Unlocked on reaching 500 million citizens. This is the only unlockable that is not preceded by an Issue.

    3. Leader Name - Unlocked on reaching 750 million citizens.

    4. National Religion -Unlocked on reaching 1 billion citizens.

    Four banners can also be unlocked on reaching certain population levels.

    Currency, Animal, & Motto -
    Go through the settings page to find the boxes for Currency, Animal, and Motto. Click (or touch) on them and type what you want.
    Don't forget to press the "Update" at the end of the page before exiting.

    Demonym -
    The Demonym decides what referencing elements of your nation will get. Clicking (or touching; yeah I'm not ignoring the phone people.) on the "?" will open choices constituting noun, adjective, and plural. You can set up each of them individually, or just the first one. The others will be set automatically.
    Alternatively, you can choose to completely ignore this part, as the game provides you with a demonym (however inaccurate it may be).

    Banners -
    Banners are the images that you see on your nation page at the top, above your nation name. At various population levels, up to 5 custom banners can be unlocked where you can upload images of your choice to be displayed on your nation page. The banner part is found at the bottom of the settings page.
    The uploading procedure is nearly the same as that of flags so you'll get this easily. Just make sure the image you choose is of appropriate dimensions (approx. length:breadth=5:2) otherwise it will be flattened and distorted.
    Another way to access banners is by clicking on the picture on your main nation page. It will also take you to the same page as by through settings. There, you can choose whether to deactivate any banner or make one primary (it will be shown first when someone visits your nation page). Banners are randomly shown every time.

    E-Mail -
    The email section enables you to set an email for your nation. It is visible only to you, and is used for WA purposes and to notify you if your nation is going to CTE (Cease To Exist). It is also useful to recover your nation password.

    Password -
    As is apparent, here you can change your nation password. Simple enough.
    Don't forget to press the UPDATE button at the bottom of the page before exiting Settings, else your changes won't be saved.
    This brings us to the end of the Settings Section. Hope you have understood everything. Have fun in NS !



    1.9 NS Forum

    The NationStates forum is considered separate from the actual NationStates game (NS) and has its own rules governing how conduct is to be done. But the forum is where the vast majority of interactions on NationStates happens, and one will miss a lot if they do not check out the forum at least once.

    There are a number of subforums within the greater NS forum, each with its own speciality and brand of rules for participants. They are as follows:

    National and International Roleplaying — this is where nations can roleplay with others without having to use embassies or gathering in regions. Of all of the subforums on NS this explicitly is In Character, e.g. you are speaking as a member of your nation and not as you as a player. This subforum has a number of smaller forums devoted to various aspects of roleplay.
    They are:

    1. Factbooks and National Information — a place to put your factbooks, embassy exchanges with other nations, and miscellaneous information.

    2. NationStates — a place where nations can talk about various things In Character, e.g. wars or legislation.

    3. International Incidents — a place where nations can declare war on one another or issue international sanctions, but mostly relating to warfare.

    4. Global Economics and Trade — a place where your the nation can sell your wares to others, everything from tanks and antimatter bombs to concrete and lunar colonies.

    5. NS Sports — a place where you can send your nation’s athletes to participate in Football, American Football, Tennis, or national animal ball; and other sports-related activities.

    World Assembly — the forum relating to matters of the World Assembly, where nations can submit proposals and have them peer-reviewed. It is divided into three subforums:

    1. General Assembly — for submitting proposals on improving the international world, and for other WA members to offer critiques and advice.

    2. Security Council — unlike the GA, the SC is devoted to three things: Condemning and Commending nations and regions, and Liberating regions. Condemnation and Commendation are badges given to nations or regions who are (in)famous throughout the NS world and can be given either for gameplay or roleplay reasons. Liberations are limited to regions only and are used to free regions from invaders.

    3. WA Archives — a read-only forum, the Archives are where passed Resolution threads are stored for posterity. It contains a sub-archive for historical resolutions.[/list

      National and Regional Gameplaying — the forum where the politics of the WA and the style of Roleplay is combined. Players can interact either by themselves or as representatives of their region.

      1. Gameplay — this is where regions post their regional updates in their own specific threads, where citizens and officers alike can comment, similar to how nations IRL interact with one another.

      2. Got Issues? — this is where the Issues one encounters every day are drafted and posted for peer-review before being submitted into the game.

      Nuts and Bolts — the forum where the mechanics of the site are discussed, usually by nations who have found bugs or glitches, and where admin tests betas. This is also where the NS Forum rules are reported to for the moderators to enforce.

      1. Technical — this is for bug reports, questions on the game, suggestions for improvements, and beta testing.

      2. Moderation — this is where one can go to the mods for help regarding an issue on the forum anywhere. Do not confuse this with the Getting Help Center.

      General Discussion — the forum where one can discuss anything. Quasi-social media section.

      1. General — this is where one can discuss virtually anything relating to the real world, most notably politics. One must have a cool head, for there are many opposing views held by many extreme nations. This is not a roleplay forum.

      2. Arts & Fiction — this is where one can discuss anything related to literature and culture, and existential angst.

      Fifth Dimension — the forum where everything else is discussed. Non-NationStates roleplaying, chatting, and the Card game.

      1. Portal to the Multiverse — for non-NationStates roleplay.

      2. Trading Cards — for the NS Card game introduced for the 2018 April Fools event and is now a permanent event as of December 21st, 2018. Originally it was called NS: The Lootboxing, which is a pun on Magic: The Gathering.

      3. Forum 7 — for relaxation, sharing jokes, having fun.

      Archive — the graveyard for all threads that have reached 500 pages worth of posts.


      1.9.1 NS Forum Etiquette

      The NS forums are one of the primary ways to get your nation warned or deleted, none of which, contrary to the belief of a few certain players, is a good thing. It is advisable to familiarise yourself with this, as lack of knowledge of the rules does not exempt you from them. Broadly, using common sense, keeping things PG13 and being nice to other players is the general gist. If you’re unsure about something or think there might be the faintest possibility of getting hit for something, read the rules and ask an older nation, one of the Praetorian Guards, or a Senator.

      If you get warned, or an unofficial warning, jump off for a bit, then revisit it. If you still don’t see anything wrong with what you did, contact one of the PG or Senate for help with the appeal. Don’t flame moderation, as that can be an easy way to gain more warnings and lose a nation.

      Specifically, regarding the Gameplay and Security Council forums, try to avoid posting in threads without talking to Senate first. They are filled with players who will attempt to twist your words for political gain and use them to harm the Order. Read the thread without posting first, and if you feel that you must post, get a Senator to run through your post first. Always exercise caution.

      The Moderation forum, unless marked with [Discussion], is a report only forum. Unless you are reporting someone, or have been reported, try to ignore the forum. If you are reporting or have been reported/warned, ask PG or Senate, rather than stumbling in and clocking up a series of warnings and getting kicked from the game. It has happened far too many times, no you’re not going to be the exception, there is no shame in getting a second opinion for something, and no, we don’t mind.

      There a few rules to pay particular attention to:

      1. Flaming: Attacks against players, and you can be penalised even if you didn't intend it.

      2. Flamebaiting: Posts that aren't illegal on their own, but will likely get someone to respond angrily.

      3. Spam/Gravedigging/Threadjacking: Posting lots of posts, bumping topics, posting in super old posts, posting stuff that sidetracks the thread etc. Also don't call people trolls, as you’ll be warned.

      4. Rule lawyering: Basically, disagreeing with mods. There are correct ways of doing this, but they are situational, so ask for assistance rather than relying on a guide on how to do this. Also don't pretend to be a mod/fake warn people. This is against the rules.

      5. Harassment: Both keep everything PG-13 (innuendos included), and don't target someone. If you're in doubt whether you’re an issue, the likely answer is you are.

      In general, follow the NS rules and don’t be stupid. Treat the SC, Moderation and Gameplay as read-only. General is where the majority of warnings are handed out. If you make someone “butthurt” they may report you, and it doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, it’s the wording you use. When you are unsure about something or need to appeal something ask one of the Senators or a member of the Praetorian Guard. Following the above, you should be fine.


      1.10 NationStates Events

      On two or three occasions per year, Max Barry and the NationStates Admin team put together special events for the players. These events consist of different games, which engage the entire site. Some you can choose not to participate in, and some you are automatically involved in. The day where the most diverse games are found is April Fools (the games differ every year). The other days are in August and October, called N-Day and Z-Day. Here is an explanation of the main events:


      1.10.1 Z-Day

      Z-Day is an annual event that takes place in the Halloween vicinity. It runs for 32 hours. Zombies gradually infect your nation, turning your population into zombies. When you are hit by any of the means to cure, kill, or turn, your nation is relegated to a cooldown period. For the period of time of the event, any region may be passworded for no cost to prevent invasions from the outside. The same applies to ejecting nations who threaten the region. The site documents statistics and keeps a leaderboard up for you to view throughout the event. The three ways in which you may deal with zombies are:

      Cure the Zombies: “Research Cure” enables you to develop a method to combat the zombie menace (Cure Missiles). Cure Missiles are fired at other nations to cleanse them of zombies. With each upgraded Cure Missile, a greater number of zombies are cured. Most regions attempt to cure their zombie infestation.

      Kill the Zombies: “Exterminate Zombies” gives you the power to deploy military forces (Tactical Zombie Elimination Squads) to kill the zombies in other nations. This will kill the population of that nation. With each upgrade, your military force will kill more zombies per nation. A sizeable but not considerable number of regions elect to kill the zombies.

      Turn the Humans: “Embrace Undead” will give you the ability to turn the population of other nations into zombies via deployment of zombies (Hordes). As you upgrade, the Hordes grow larger and more infectious. Regions who choose this option typically invade other regions to infect them.

      The thorough run-down to Z-Day can be found in this news release

      Tally Board for Z-Day(s):


      1.10.2 N-Day

      On August 26, the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, the site hosts N-Day, which is where the ability to nuclear bomb everyone is spawned. The event lasts for 24 hours. If you refrain from joining a Faction, you will not be affected; however nor will you be able to participate. Only nations in a Faction may fire Nukes at other nations. Being hit with a Nuke or Shield will reset the countdown to your next use of either. A nation is targeted with a Nuke before it actually makes contact, which gives you or an ally time to respond with a Shield on your nation. When a Nuke hits a nation, it is afflicted with Radiation, which slows Production and makes it more difficult to generate Nukes or Shields.

      Nations participating are assigned a speciality, which designates what their nation can accomplish during N-Day. The specialities are as follows:

      Military Specialists: Receive 50% more Nukes when converting Production (can build more Nukes).
      Strategic Specialists: Receive 50% more Shield when converting Production (can build more shields).
      Economic Specialists: Their cap for Production is 200% higher (can build more of both).

      The site explanation for attacking and defending reads as such:

      Attacking:

      On your Production screen, spend some of your Production to build Nukes. These go into your stockpile.

      On another nation's Nuke page, click/tap the TARGET button and select the number of Nukes to use.

      Once targeted, it takes 10 minutes for your Nukes to reach a READY state. Note that your targeted page is public: All nations can see who is targeting whom.

      When your targeted Nukes are ready, click/tap LAUNCH.

      Your Nukes are now categorized as launches for you and incoming for your target. Launched Nukes take 3-5 minutes to reach their target. When they do, they earn strikes for you and inflict radiation on the target, which reduces their rate of Production. This also earns score for your Faction and reduces the enemy Faction's Score. A nation with 100% radiation is out of the game.

      Defending:

      On the Production screen, spend Production to build Shield.

      Find Launched Nukes to destroy. Your top priority is any Incoming Nukes launched at you. Secondarily, you may wish to target Incoming Nukes on anyone in your Faction (see your Faction's Incoming page), and also keep an eye on Targeted Nukes that may threaten you or your Faction in the near future.

      Click/tap DESTROY to deploy 1 Shield per Nuke.

      Factions:

      Factions are the centre of how the game works. As stated above, you need to join a faction to participate. Usually, your region will have chosen a faction, which may consist of one or more regions banding together for the event. You can use multiple nations in this. Factions are typically organized on an offsite Discord or directed on the Regional Message Board for those who don’t have Discord. Your faction might enter into alliances or sign non-aggression pacts (NAPs) with other factions. Pay attention to those so you don’t ruin relations between your Factions.

      Event Information

      Past Tallies


      1.10.3 Trading Cards

      Trading Cards was originally the April Fools event for 2018. Max Barry decided to expand it into a constant event. Trading Cards is a game wherein the nations of NS have been converted into card form. Originally this included some ex-nations, but in the new expansion that will be released, that will no longer be the case. Current nations make up the cards. Some cards sell for much higher prices than others.

      The most common way to make money was puppet farming, which is using puppets to make money which was then transferred to the main nation by selling off unwanted cards for high cash amounts. The currency is online, not real, and no profit can be made from this off the site.

      Playing With The Cards:

      To play this game, you open a Loot Box, which your nation will receive at regular time intervals, and can build your deck. In the revival, the loot boxes have a 15% chance of dropping every time you open an issue. You have the option of keeping the card, selling the card or junking the card for profit. Junking the card grants you the same amount of profit as the card is worth at base price. Selling the card on the market can be completely profitable.

      To learn the best ways to make money for the more expensive cards, feel free to ask on the NPO Discord (https://discord.gg/g5x6UZ4) when this event goes back up.

      Original Announcement

      Re-Release Announcement

      Deck Statistics

      Update


      Go to Dispatch Two: The New Pacific Order


    RawReport