03-25-2010, 08:29 PM
I sort of had an unofficial 'behind closed doors' talk with the founder of Grand Central. What I liked about him was he was really interested in discussing NationStates and direction, which is something I am looking for a little bit. What I liked the most about him is he had vision about where he wanted his region to go.The first thing anyone will notice while looking at Grand Central is the fact they are the 10th largest region in the game, with only Capitalist Paradise (which I feel may be the next region would should contact after this) and TITO being the only two User Created Regions with a larger population. But as I said with OBI that population isn't the reason we should be interested.What we should be interested with is what they do on the game map. When I asked him directly he said his personal vision is for grand central is "to be big in WA affairs and in raiding". So like OBI we are dealing with another military region, this one however has a more committed stance. However, when I pressed him a little more about the idea of having to defend The South Pacific and other military actions he stressed that NS is a game of give and take, which I thought was pretty cool personally. Also unlike other raider orgs I have been in, the region is not a pure military region and is also a democracy, so unlike the agreement in OBI I will not be dealing with only one person. His vision also expanded much more than a military one, for example he had an idea of a WA delegate voting block to cause more influence in the WA. While I said that TSP would not commit to something like that, that we would be open to be involved in more discussions of WA related things.Now, what I found pretty odd is that the founder seemed to be really into the terms we already have drafted with OBI. He was more than willing to have his army come to the aid of The South Pacific in an invent of a crisis, and what I found odd is that he liked the terms of having his army, while they are off duty endorsing the legal delegate of The South Pacific. However all of the military might in the world would not help us as much as having an actual relationship with a more raider aligned region. I think it takes a real target off of our back as far as worrying about a raider attack. As delegate the biggest challenge to TSP security is an endo swapper combined with a raider attack, being on politically good terms with I think is a good move for the TSP.I know some of the new guys joining us here soon said they would be interested and building an army, and this would just be another good resource as far as when it comes to that.The best thing though, is like OBI the people who are dedicated to the region are REALLY dedicated. This guy mentioned he sends thousands of TGs and he has some great people in the region.I do want to touch on some downsides. The first being that he himself said that his government is having a tough time with activity and the people taking the region in their own hands. However he seemed really hopeful because like us, they have an election coming up.Another thing is that this is a raider region, and I don't think that the fact that we have an agreement with a raider region that has our best interest as far as security and activity goes would bother most defender regions. It is something to consider, but I think Grand Central isn't huge in raiding yet. I have not seen them raid a lot (maybe some of the defenders who will be joining that can give more weight to that) and I'm pretty sure that they aren't some of the ones that shut down regions after they take it.What this does do is it puts us in a position to do as well is talk to them about their raiding policy if anything does wind up happening (which I honestly don't think it will). In recap, I think an alliance with Grand Central would bring a lot to TSP. I think mostly, it brings a lot more political power to us. It would put us on great terms with one of the largest regions in terms of size. It also brings us closer to a region that is looking to get active in the WA which I agree should be one of our goals if we want to be a power in NS (which is one of my goals). The last thing it brings is increased security to the region both politically and in an NS military sense.Mind you this isn't final at all because they have to vote on it, as well as us.I will bring this up in our assembly after the new cabinet has a chance to see this.