NationStates News

by Sedgistan
Tue, 18 Apr 2023

In the beginning there were regions. But not Founders. Only Delegates. That's right, back in 2002, you started a region and just crossed your fingers that it wouldn't be immediately overrun by hostile forces. It was a wild time.

Founders have kept the peace across thousands of regions for the last two decades. But what happens when a Founder slips off into the void and isn't around any more? Well, things would get interesting: often in a good way, in regions that were large enough to form self-sustaining democracies, but sometimes not, and regions would die out.

Today we release a package of changes that radically increase your ability to run your region the way you want.

Governors

Regions now feature Governors, who inherit all the powers that Founders previously had, such as ejecting nations, password-protecting the region, granting the Delegate Executive control, and appointing Regional Officers. Any nation that was an Executive Founder of a region previously has automatically been appointed Governor of that region.

Founders are still recorded in regions, but only as a historical record of the nation that created a region; the role does not have any powers associated with it.

Successors

Governors have gained a new power, to appoint Successors. This provides an additional layer of protection for regions, as if the Governor nation ceases to exist, the first in line Successor inherits the Governor role, allowing them to take over management and safekeeping of their region. Governors may also choose to abdicate, which allows their chosen Successor to immediately become Governor.

These changes provide longer-term security for regions, as well as allowing the baton of command to be passed on to another nation when a Governor feels they are no longer able to provide leadership for their region.

Frontiers

A new region type has been introduced: Frontiers. These regions have no Governors, meaning Executive power is held by the Delegate position. This makes them more vulnerable to invasion from outside groups, or to internal coups; however, newly founded nations may spawn within Frontiers, providing them with a steady flow of new residents.

When founding a new region, you can choose to designate it as a Frontier, or to stick with the security of a standard region with the founding nation becoming Governor. Existing regions can choose to transition to Frontier status, which will result in the Governor relinquishing their powers. Regions can also choose to transition away from Frontier status, which will result in the WA Delegate being appointed as Governor. In both cases, the process takes two weeks.

Injunctions

The Security Council has been granted new powers to pass Injunction resolutions on regions. This prevents the region's WA Delegate from changing the region's status to or from Frontier. This allows the World Assembly to intervene to prevent unwanted changes of region status.

Icons

And that's not all! There are also some swanky new WA-related icons rolling out, courtesy of The Metacausal Big Bad Daddy of Kyrusia, who beat out a talented field of designers. We greatly appreciate the contribution.

For more information see the updated FAQ or join in the discussion in the Technical forum.