04-16-2015, 07:35 PM
Thanks to Brutland and Norden, who has offered to send me some older workings of the handbook project.
the NationStates Walkthrough
Hello, my name is Brutland and Norden and welcome to the South Pacific!
First of all, congratulations on creating your new nation. You may have seen your nation page - there are a lot of things going on and there are so many things to explore! Curious as to what do those buttons do? Don't know where to find stuff? Don't worry, we're here to guide you through it.
Your nation page may look similar to this. Here are the parts which we'll walk you through in the next few posts:
[Image: baiZli8.png]
This guide consists of four parts:
[Image: TJciI73.png]
Focus first on the nation page. The nation type you put in became the pretitle of your nation, and the motto is the one you put in earlier. You also saw the national animal and currency you’re put in earlier. Now what are those other things?
The Nation Category and its associated three Main Statistics (Stats), Civil Rights, Economy, and Political Freedoms, are generated based on your initial answers to the questions, the kind of inhabitants you have, and type of government you put in when you created your nation. Don’t worry, they aren’t fixed in stone. They will evolve and change depending on how you answer Issues.
The Location is the region you’re in: the South Pacific, one of the best regions ever! The Regional Influence category is determined by your Influence Stat.
The Detail toolbar allows you to see specific stats of your nation. You can write a factbook for your nation by clicking on "Factbook". "People” shows the major causes of death in your nation as a pie graph. “Government” shows your government’s spending on different areas, also as a pie graph. “Economy” shows how much of the economy is public sector or private sector, also as a pie graph. “Trend” shows your nation’s Main Stats over time, as a line graph. “Analysis” lets you see (and compare with other nations) your nation’s statistics, which you can select via the drop-down menu on the upper right hand corner. Note that you may also see other nations’ details by clicking on these same things on their respective nation pages. These details also change depending on how you answer Issues.
Now, going back to the nation page, you will note that your National Description says that your population is 5 million. All nations start out at 5 million population, and this increases randomly everyday. The second paragraph shows a synopsis of the details you’ve seen earlier. The third paragraph will eventually show how you decided on the last 5 issues or so, as seen (for example) here.
Under National Happenings you will see notifications for new telegrams and unaddressed issues. Below that is the feed, which will show most of the changes in your nation.
the Sidebar
the Sidebar
The Sidebar is a handy compilation of links designed to make navigation easier. Under your nation name are four links. Let’s go through them one by one:
Issues
The issue page is where you will answer issues affecting your nation. Click on one of them to answer them. If you don’t like any of the choices, you can dismiss the issue without any effect on your nation. Your answer will take effect on update time.
[Image: xG5XN2i.png]
Telegrams
Click on “Telegrams” to go to the Telegram Page read the messages sent to your nation. As a new nation, you will get spammed by people trying to recruit you to their regions (those marked with a silhouette of a person). You may read them and see whether any one of the suits your fancy, but I suggest you stay in the South Pacific. (We are nice people! ) The telegram spam from other regions will soon subside, and eventually the Telegram Page should take its true role for communicating with other nations and players.
Note that the default inbox size is 20 telegrams. As such, you should keep some space open for new telegrams to be sent to you. You can delete individual telegrams, or check the telegrams you want to delete and select “Delete # marked telegrams”.
[Image: PtZZZyK.png]
If you like to save the telegrams to the “Archive”, you can send them individually there, or use the drop-down list labelled “Move # marked telegrams to:” The can be accessed via the drop-down menu just below “<nation name>’s Telegrams” on the upper left hand corner of the Telegram Page.
Now, if you don’t want telegram spam anymore, we’ll show you how to take care of that later.
Dossier
The Dossier Page shows nations you’re interested in and would like to get updates on. Follow the instructions on that page to add nations and/or regions to your dossier.
Settings
The Settings Page allows you to change you nations settings. The Customizable Fields include “Classification” , “Motto”, “Currency”, “National Animal”, and unlockable ones such as “Capital City”, “Leader”, and “National Religion”. This shows how you can unlock some of the customizable fields.
The flag is also customizable. Clicking “create your own flag” allows you to upload a flag for your nation. Take note of flag etiquette and site rules on flags.
The e-mail is not required, but recommended, as it allows you to recover your password if you forget/lose the password.
Under “New Issues” you can select the frequency by which your nation will receive issues.
Nations cease to exist (CTE) in 28 days, unless they are in “Vacation Mode”, wherein they CTE in 60 days. However, nations in Vacation Mode will neither receive nor implement new issues.
Ticking “Yes” in “Log In Automatically” will automatically log in your nation when you go to the NationStates site.
You can change how NS looks like in “Theme”.
You can change your telegram settings in “Telegrams: Preferences”. Open it and change your telegram preferences.
[Image: g3RytOV.png]
It is generally advisable to block Recruitment telegrams if you’re settled on your region and if you don’t like to receive telegram spam like you’ve gotten earlier. WA Campaign telegrams will ask you to support or oppose World Assembly resolutions. Region (official) telegrams often contain important messages to the region and updates, so it would be better if they are kept unblocked.
Region Page
Clicking on "THE SOUTH PACIFIC" will take you to the Region Page. More discussion of it here.
The World
Clicking on “The World” will show you the World Page. This will include a “Today’s Featured Region”, which changes everyday, a similar “Today’s World Census Report” which ranks all the nations in the world according to a particular Nation Statistic. The “World Happenings” will show what has been happening recently throughout the NS world.
The World Assembly
The World Assembly (WA) is NationStates’ version of the United Nations, accessible via the “World Assembly” on the sidebar.
The World Assembly page contains a join button (read the rules first). The World Assembly has two chambers, the General Assembly and the Security Council, both of which can pass resolutions. You can see the overview of the two chambers in the World Assembly page. At the bottom, “Recent” events shows changes to delegacies throughout the NS world.
News & FAQ
Clicking on the “News” will bring you to news articles regarding the game and game updates. “FAQ” will bring you to the frequently asked questions about the game and answers. If your question is not in there, feel free to ask us here and we’ll gladly assist you.
Forum
Clicking on the “Forum” will bring you to the main NationStates Forum. It is a complex thing which we will address in the next post.
The Region Page
Click on “THE SOUTH PACIFIC” on the sidebar to go to the Region Page. Here you will get to see the South Pacific.
The “WA Delegate” is the leader of a founderless region such as the South Pacific.
The “World Factbook Entry” (WFE) is a description and collection of quick links for the regions. The ability to change the WFE is the responsibility of the delegate of the South Pacific. Read through the WFE, and join the forum! Oh wait, you’re already in the forum...
Under “Embassies” you will see which regions the South Pacific has embassies in; typically these are friendly and allied regions. Under “Tags” you will see short words trying to describe our region; changing them is also within the ambit of the delegate. You will also see our “Regional Power” – which is extremely high – another reason to stay in the South Pacific!
Activity - History - Administration is another clickable tab. Clicking on “Activity” will show you the happenings in the game, which you can filter using the box in the upper right-hand corner and on the words in the upper left-hand corner, under “Activity”.
Clicking on “History” will show you the history of the region, mostly embassy and delegate history. Clicking on “Administration” will lead you to the Regional Administration page – which is mostly useless for non-delegates like us. But here you will see the Regional Settings, Regional Embassies, Embassy Invites, and the Regional Banlist. If you will become the delegate, this will become a handy page for you to manage the region.
Clicking on “Tired of Life in the South Pacific?” (which I hope you’re not ) will lead you to the Change Region page, where you can create your own region or join another one.
Now on to more relevant things, the “Today’s World Census Report” ranks the nations in the region according to a particular Nation Statistic (the same nation statistics you can access in the “Analysis” tab shown earlier). Below the World Census Report are Polls, which are set up and managed by the Delegate. Answering them is fun, and feel free to discuss your answers on the message board!
The “Regional Happenings” shows the last 10 happenings in the region.
The “Regional Message Board”, or RMB, allows people to post messages to the region and its inhabitants.
The Forum
The NationStates Forum is probably one of the bigger forums out there dedicated to a browser-based text game, home to many of the communities in the game. As such, it can be complex and daunting to a beginner, especially questions such as “where am I going to post this?”
Diplomacy
This is actually the hub of nation roleplay (RP). It contains 5 subforums, catering to different kinds of Nation RPs. Factbooks and National Information (FaNI) is a forum dedicated to factbooks*, nation-building, international embassy exchanges, news threads, and other information. NationStates (NSNS), by and large, is a forum dedicated to more peaceful pursuits, character role-plays, and RPs pertaining to your nation. International Incidents (II), is the forum where military and war RPs are made. The distinction between NSNS and II is not set in stone, nor is it official, but the crowds frequenting both areas tend to be different. NSNS also tends to be a slower forum than II.
Global Economics and Trade (GEaT) is a forum dedicated to trade and “storefronts” – threads and pages dedicated to your nation’s companies, where your companies can sell stuff. NS Sports is a forum dedicated to Sports RPs – it hosts World Cups, local League tables, and sports news.
World Assembly
This is the forum for the World Assembly. As mentioned earlier, the World Assembly is divided into two chambers, the General Assembly and the Security Council, and as such, there are two subforums for each. The WA Archives house old locked threads of the WA.
National Affairs
National Affairs isn’t exactly how its name suggests. Gameplay (GP) is a forum dedicated to military gameplay, in which the mechanics of the game are being used for interregional conflict. Got Issues? Is a forum dedicated to formulating and discussing Issues.
Nuts and Bolts
Technical is a forum where technical issues and general help requests are being lodged. However, you might instead like to file a Getting Help Request instead if your request is individual in nature. Moderation is a forum for, as its name suggests, moderation in the forum. If you have problems on the game side (ex. Another nation has an offensive flag), you may just file a Getting Help Request.
General Discussion
This is the place for stuff not really related to your nation or even NationStates. General (NSG) is a forum for discussions and debate about anything, including real world elections, real world news, and recurrent issues ranging from abortion to Zoroastrianism. Arts & Fiction (A&F) is a forum to discuss books, music, TV, art, etc. This is also the place where you can show off the stuff that you authored. Portal to the Multiverse (P2tM) is a forum dedicated to RPs which are not related to your nation, such as Alternate History RPs, pony-themed RPs, and RPs related to video games (Fallout, Halo, Mass Effect), books, and other stuff. Forum 7 (F7) is a forum dedicated to forum games, spam threads, and socializing threads. Threads in the F7 forum are deleted after a prescribed amount of inactivity.
Archives
As its name suggests, this houses the archives and memorable threads in the NSForum. Requests for Archiving are lodged in the Moderation forum.
*before the factbook thing under the nation page was set up, people used to put up their Factbooks here. You can still do the same, though.
It's somewhat outdated of course, but it will be great to build on
the NationStates Walkthrough
Hello, my name is Brutland and Norden and welcome to the South Pacific!
First of all, congratulations on creating your new nation. You may have seen your nation page - there are a lot of things going on and there are so many things to explore! Curious as to what do those buttons do? Don't know where to find stuff? Don't worry, we're here to guide you through it.
Your nation page may look similar to this. Here are the parts which we'll walk you through in the next few posts:
[Image: baiZli8.png]
This guide consists of four parts:
- the Nation Page
- the Sidebar
- the Region Page
- the Forum
[Image: TJciI73.png]
Nation page for Nordgau, a new nation founded in the South Pacific.
Focus first on the nation page. The nation type you put in became the pretitle of your nation, and the motto is the one you put in earlier. You also saw the national animal and currency you’re put in earlier. Now what are those other things?
The Nation Category and its associated three Main Statistics (Stats), Civil Rights, Economy, and Political Freedoms, are generated based on your initial answers to the questions, the kind of inhabitants you have, and type of government you put in when you created your nation. Don’t worry, they aren’t fixed in stone. They will evolve and change depending on how you answer Issues.
The Location is the region you’re in: the South Pacific, one of the best regions ever! The Regional Influence category is determined by your Influence Stat.
The Detail toolbar allows you to see specific stats of your nation. You can write a factbook for your nation by clicking on "Factbook". "People” shows the major causes of death in your nation as a pie graph. “Government” shows your government’s spending on different areas, also as a pie graph. “Economy” shows how much of the economy is public sector or private sector, also as a pie graph. “Trend” shows your nation’s Main Stats over time, as a line graph. “Analysis” lets you see (and compare with other nations) your nation’s statistics, which you can select via the drop-down menu on the upper right hand corner. Note that you may also see other nations’ details by clicking on these same things on their respective nation pages. These details also change depending on how you answer Issues.
Now, going back to the nation page, you will note that your National Description says that your population is 5 million. All nations start out at 5 million population, and this increases randomly everyday. The second paragraph shows a synopsis of the details you’ve seen earlier. The third paragraph will eventually show how you decided on the last 5 issues or so, as seen (for example) here.
Under National Happenings you will see notifications for new telegrams and unaddressed issues. Below that is the feed, which will show most of the changes in your nation.
the Sidebar
the Sidebar
The Sidebar is a handy compilation of links designed to make navigation easier. Under your nation name are four links. Let’s go through them one by one:
Issues
The issue page is where you will answer issues affecting your nation. Click on one of them to answer them. If you don’t like any of the choices, you can dismiss the issue without any effect on your nation. Your answer will take effect on update time.
[Image: xG5XN2i.png]
Telegram Page for Nordgau, filled with spam.
Telegrams
Click on “Telegrams” to go to the Telegram Page read the messages sent to your nation. As a new nation, you will get spammed by people trying to recruit you to their regions (those marked with a silhouette of a person). You may read them and see whether any one of the suits your fancy, but I suggest you stay in the South Pacific. (We are nice people! ) The telegram spam from other regions will soon subside, and eventually the Telegram Page should take its true role for communicating with other nations and players.
Note that the default inbox size is 20 telegrams. As such, you should keep some space open for new telegrams to be sent to you. You can delete individual telegrams, or check the telegrams you want to delete and select “Delete # marked telegrams”.
[Image: PtZZZyK.png]
Nordgau deleting telegram spam!!!
If you like to save the telegrams to the “Archive”, you can send them individually there, or use the drop-down list labelled “Move # marked telegrams to:” The can be accessed via the drop-down menu just below “<nation name>’s Telegrams” on the upper left hand corner of the Telegram Page.
Now, if you don’t want telegram spam anymore, we’ll show you how to take care of that later.
Dossier
The Dossier Page shows nations you’re interested in and would like to get updates on. Follow the instructions on that page to add nations and/or regions to your dossier.
Settings
The Settings Page allows you to change you nations settings. The Customizable Fields include “Classification” , “Motto”, “Currency”, “National Animal”, and unlockable ones such as “Capital City”, “Leader”, and “National Religion”. This shows how you can unlock some of the customizable fields.
The flag is also customizable. Clicking “create your own flag” allows you to upload a flag for your nation. Take note of flag etiquette and site rules on flags.
The e-mail is not required, but recommended, as it allows you to recover your password if you forget/lose the password.
Under “New Issues” you can select the frequency by which your nation will receive issues.
Nations cease to exist (CTE) in 28 days, unless they are in “Vacation Mode”, wherein they CTE in 60 days. However, nations in Vacation Mode will neither receive nor implement new issues.
Ticking “Yes” in “Log In Automatically” will automatically log in your nation when you go to the NationStates site.
You can change how NS looks like in “Theme”.
You can change your telegram settings in “Telegrams: Preferences”. Open it and change your telegram preferences.
[Image: g3RytOV.png]
Nordgau changing telegram preferences.
It is generally advisable to block Recruitment telegrams if you’re settled on your region and if you don’t like to receive telegram spam like you’ve gotten earlier. WA Campaign telegrams will ask you to support or oppose World Assembly resolutions. Region (official) telegrams often contain important messages to the region and updates, so it would be better if they are kept unblocked.
Region Page
Clicking on "THE SOUTH PACIFIC" will take you to the Region Page. More discussion of it here.
The World
Clicking on “The World” will show you the World Page. This will include a “Today’s Featured Region”, which changes everyday, a similar “Today’s World Census Report” which ranks all the nations in the world according to a particular Nation Statistic. The “World Happenings” will show what has been happening recently throughout the NS world.
The World Assembly
The World Assembly (WA) is NationStates’ version of the United Nations, accessible via the “World Assembly” on the sidebar.
The World Assembly page contains a join button (read the rules first). The World Assembly has two chambers, the General Assembly and the Security Council, both of which can pass resolutions. You can see the overview of the two chambers in the World Assembly page. At the bottom, “Recent” events shows changes to delegacies throughout the NS world.
News & FAQ
Clicking on the “News” will bring you to news articles regarding the game and game updates. “FAQ” will bring you to the frequently asked questions about the game and answers. If your question is not in there, feel free to ask us here and we’ll gladly assist you.
Forum
Clicking on the “Forum” will bring you to the main NationStates Forum. It is a complex thing which we will address in the next post.
The Region Page
Click on “THE SOUTH PACIFIC” on the sidebar to go to the Region Page. Here you will get to see the South Pacific.
The “WA Delegate” is the leader of a founderless region such as the South Pacific.
The “World Factbook Entry” (WFE) is a description and collection of quick links for the regions. The ability to change the WFE is the responsibility of the delegate of the South Pacific. Read through the WFE, and join the forum! Oh wait, you’re already in the forum...
Under “Embassies” you will see which regions the South Pacific has embassies in; typically these are friendly and allied regions. Under “Tags” you will see short words trying to describe our region; changing them is also within the ambit of the delegate. You will also see our “Regional Power” – which is extremely high – another reason to stay in the South Pacific!
Activity - History - Administration is another clickable tab. Clicking on “Activity” will show you the happenings in the game, which you can filter using the box in the upper right-hand corner and on the words in the upper left-hand corner, under “Activity”.
Clicking on “History” will show you the history of the region, mostly embassy and delegate history. Clicking on “Administration” will lead you to the Regional Administration page – which is mostly useless for non-delegates like us. But here you will see the Regional Settings, Regional Embassies, Embassy Invites, and the Regional Banlist. If you will become the delegate, this will become a handy page for you to manage the region.
Clicking on “Tired of Life in the South Pacific?” (which I hope you’re not ) will lead you to the Change Region page, where you can create your own region or join another one.
Now on to more relevant things, the “Today’s World Census Report” ranks the nations in the region according to a particular Nation Statistic (the same nation statistics you can access in the “Analysis” tab shown earlier). Below the World Census Report are Polls, which are set up and managed by the Delegate. Answering them is fun, and feel free to discuss your answers on the message board!
The “Regional Happenings” shows the last 10 happenings in the region.
The “Regional Message Board”, or RMB, allows people to post messages to the region and its inhabitants.
The Forum
The NationStates Forum is probably one of the bigger forums out there dedicated to a browser-based text game, home to many of the communities in the game. As such, it can be complex and daunting to a beginner, especially questions such as “where am I going to post this?”
Diplomacy
This is actually the hub of nation roleplay (RP). It contains 5 subforums, catering to different kinds of Nation RPs. Factbooks and National Information (FaNI) is a forum dedicated to factbooks*, nation-building, international embassy exchanges, news threads, and other information. NationStates (NSNS), by and large, is a forum dedicated to more peaceful pursuits, character role-plays, and RPs pertaining to your nation. International Incidents (II), is the forum where military and war RPs are made. The distinction between NSNS and II is not set in stone, nor is it official, but the crowds frequenting both areas tend to be different. NSNS also tends to be a slower forum than II.
Global Economics and Trade (GEaT) is a forum dedicated to trade and “storefronts” – threads and pages dedicated to your nation’s companies, where your companies can sell stuff. NS Sports is a forum dedicated to Sports RPs – it hosts World Cups, local League tables, and sports news.
World Assembly
This is the forum for the World Assembly. As mentioned earlier, the World Assembly is divided into two chambers, the General Assembly and the Security Council, and as such, there are two subforums for each. The WA Archives house old locked threads of the WA.
National Affairs
National Affairs isn’t exactly how its name suggests. Gameplay (GP) is a forum dedicated to military gameplay, in which the mechanics of the game are being used for interregional conflict. Got Issues? Is a forum dedicated to formulating and discussing Issues.
Nuts and Bolts
Technical is a forum where technical issues and general help requests are being lodged. However, you might instead like to file a Getting Help Request instead if your request is individual in nature. Moderation is a forum for, as its name suggests, moderation in the forum. If you have problems on the game side (ex. Another nation has an offensive flag), you may just file a Getting Help Request.
General Discussion
This is the place for stuff not really related to your nation or even NationStates. General (NSG) is a forum for discussions and debate about anything, including real world elections, real world news, and recurrent issues ranging from abortion to Zoroastrianism. Arts & Fiction (A&F) is a forum to discuss books, music, TV, art, etc. This is also the place where you can show off the stuff that you authored. Portal to the Multiverse (P2tM) is a forum dedicated to RPs which are not related to your nation, such as Alternate History RPs, pony-themed RPs, and RPs related to video games (Fallout, Halo, Mass Effect), books, and other stuff. Forum 7 (F7) is a forum dedicated to forum games, spam threads, and socializing threads. Threads in the F7 forum are deleted after a prescribed amount of inactivity.
Archives
As its name suggests, this houses the archives and memorable threads in the NSForum. Requests for Archiving are lodged in the Moderation forum.
*before the factbook thing under the nation page was set up, people used to put up their Factbooks here. You can still do the same, though.
It's somewhat outdated of course, but it will be great to build on