Guide to NationStates and the South Pacific

[Escade]

I'd like to use this space as place to work on a guide to NationStates and the South Pacific.  This idea was spearheaded by Brutland and Norden and I'm thankful for his advice and suggestions.

 

I was inspired by TEP's guide here and the NS guide here.  However, I'd like our guide to be more comprehensive and also include more visuals (charts, tables, colors!) as well as quotes from players who I would interview for various areas.  

 

I'm going to be building an outline here of what I think should be covered and I welcome additions, suggestions and any volunteers to help write articles or parts. 

 

Some of the links are to works in progress. 

 

NationStates - How to play this game

 

I. Quick Walkthrough 

A. the Nation page (by Brutland and Norden)

B. the Side bar (by Brutland and Norden)

C. the Region page (by Brutland and Norden)

D. the Forum (by Brutland and Norden)

E. What else can I do?

 

II. The World Assembly

A. Overview (by Horse, edited)

D. Endorsements! ( by Todd_McCloud, edited)

 

III. Regions and Regional Government

A. the South Pacific

    1. Welcome to TSP!

    2. World Factbook Entry

    3. Regional Message Board

    4. Today’s World Census Report

    5. Polls

    6. Regional Happenings

 

B. The South Pacific Forums

      1. Regional Government

      2. Citizenship

      3. Assembly

      4. Elections

      5. NSA

      6. Foreign Affairs

      7. Regional Affairs

      8. Prominent Personas of TSP


C. Hang out with TSPers on IRC (chat)

D. Overview of Game Created Regions (GCRs)

E. Overview of User Created Regions (UCRs)

F. Overview of Major Organizations and Groups in Nation States

                

IV. Military Gameplay (neutral)

 

V. Nation-Building (Factbook making)

 

VI. Role-Playing

    A. Nation RP

    B. Character RP

    C. Sports RP

    D. Non-NS-related RP

 

VII. Glossary 

[Rebel-topia]

http://forums.thesouthpacific.org/topic/...his-first/

 

Please refer to this as a starting point.

[Arbiter08]

I think that an article on the NSA would be a nice addition

[LadyElysium]

Wow...I think I posted about the fact that there should be something like this back when I first came here. It's nice to see it kind of happening.

 

I'd also like to suggest a glossary of acronyms that are commonly used...as that was one of the hardest things for me when I joined. I often was clueless what some threads/posts were talking about.

[Rebel-topia]

I'll dig thru the assembly (I think that's where that list was) and post it here when I find it...

[Horse]

I have something like this buried away, if you guys want to see

[Arbiter08]

I have something like this buried away, if you guys want to see

Sure

[Awesomiasa]

Guys, I'm excited to see this finally on the table. This seems much easier than me contacting individuals. Once again, I thank you all!

[Horse]

Here are the links:
http://w11.zetaboards.com/Spiritus/topic/9480363/1/#new
http://wintreath.com/forums/index.php?topic=121.0

One has prominent names in, the other does not. It answers some points of this guide you guys are trying to make.

[Awesomiasa]

I should mention that B&N intended for the guide to include a part about the regional government, namely separated into the following sections

1. Regional Government - we will explain that the region has a government
   
2. Officials - things such as "what does the <insert position here> do?" will be answered here
   
3. Citizenship and Elections
   
4.  Opportunities in regional government
   

[Brutland and Norden]

Well, now that I've got my thing semi-formed, I thought of the guide to be a more general, easy-to-read, rookie-friendly guide, appropriate for NS as a whole. It should be in line with our goal to develop TSP into a more diverse region, not merely focused on gameplay.

 

How to play this game

I. Basic Game: Issues (already written)

II. the World Assembly - explains the WA, what does it do, etc.

III. Regions and Regional Government

<p style="margin-left:40px;">A. the South Pacific

<p style="margin-left:40px;">B. TSP Regional Government (these two can be covered in a separate thread/guide)

IV. Military Gameplay (I would like to have a neutral person write this)

V. Nation-Building (factbook making)

VI. Role-Playing

<p style="margin-left:40px;">A. Nation RP

<p style="margin-left:40px;">B. Character RP

<p style="margin-left:40px;">C. Sports RP

<p style="margin-left:40px;">D. Non-NS-related RP

VII. Hanging Out (chats etc.)

VIII. Glossary

 

I can take V, VI, and VII, I is already written. If anyone wants to help, please say so. When it is complete, I'm going to post it as one big thread (one post for each item) which can be linked to in the forum's welcome thread and referenced to in the welcome telegram. (BTW, it seems that TSP currently doesn't have a welcome telegram).

 

The "How to play this game" (I really need to think of a more catchy title) will be tightly integrated with the Walkthrough (more of a "what does this button do?" guide), the draft of which I have posted here. (If there are any suggestions/corrections, please tell me - I wrote that last year.) Which means that both will link to each other. (Obviously the links aren't set up yet because we don't have a guide yet. )

 

Each section can have their own, more in-depth guide. The goal is to gently guide/orient new people to NS, not overwhelm them with stuff. So a general summary guide will do, linked to an in-depth guide. For example, for the case of the World Assembly, we can simply say what it is, what does it do, and how do you submit a resolution, etc. The finer details, such as "How to make a good resolution?", "What are endorsements and what does it do?", etc. should be on another guide/thread. For Gameplay, there should be a simple explanation about delegacies, region crashing, raiding and defending, and tagging. For the in-depth detailed guide, you can put the following stuff:

 

c.  Overview of Game Created Regions (GCRs)      
    a. GCR Founding Regions: The North Pacific, The Pacific, The South Pacific*, The East Pacific, The West Pacific

    b. GCR Refounding Regions: Lazarus, Balder, Osiris

    c. GCR "  "  Regions: The Rejected Realms

d. Overview of User Created Regions (UCRs)

     a. Regions:   (Active UCRs ex. VSF, Albion, etc.)

 

e. Overview of Major Organizations or Groups in NationStates

     a. Defenders and Raiders

 

For the Regional Government, we can introduce people what is TSP and the Regional Government, who are its members, and what do they do. The in-depth guide contains what Awe had said, along with parts proposed by Escade under 1.b.

 

Wow...I think I posted about the fact that there should be something like this back when I first came here. It's nice to see it kind of happening.

 

I'd also like to suggest a glossary of acronyms that are commonly used...as that was one of the hardest things for me when I joined. I often was clueless what some threads/posts were talking about.

I also would've wanted that seven years ago... it's difficult going to all of that through trial and error.

 

The abbreviations can be put under another section "Glossary".

[Rebel-topia]

I did a forum search, but couldnt find the acronym discussion... I have contacted Hile, but have not heard back as of yet...

[Kris Kringle]

This one? http://forums.thesouthpacific.org/topic/...-acronyms/

[Rebel-topia]

That one!!!!

 

I dont know why it got archived. I assumed that a search of the forum would have brought up archived topics... But I guess not! Im compiling that thread into one... um... cohesive... thought, then I'll post it here

[Kris Kringle]

Lots of interesting threads are getting archived, the downside being that they can't be searched. :/

[Rebel-topia]

Or brought back from the archives... I mean, they can, they just cant be re-archived... Which totally sucks...

[Rebel-topia]

Here is a list of OVOCA – “Obnoxiously Verbose and Overly Complicated Acronyms”

[spoiler]

NationStates terms

• NS – NationStates
  
• Feeder – Regions in which new nations are founded. These are commonly referred to as  â€œthe Pacifics” – The North Pacific, The South Pacific, The East Pacific, The West Pacific, and The Pacific
  
• Sinker – Regions in which a nation that has ceased to exist is refounded, or the region in which a nation is moved to when ejected from a region. Refounding regions are: Lazarus, Osiris, and Balder. The Rejected Realms is the region in which one is ejected to.
  
• GCR – Game Created Region. These are the regions created by the game mods. The game created regions are all the Feeders and Sinkers, along with the Warzones: Warzone Airspace, Warzone Africa, Warzone Asia, Warzone Australia, Warzone Europe, and Warzone Sandbox.
  
• UCR – User Created Region. Any region that was founded by a nation. Essentially, every region that is not a Game Created Region.
  
• WA – The World Assembly. Comparable to the United Nations. The World Assembly has two chambers, the General Assembly
  and the Security Council,
  both of which can pass resolutions.
  
• GA – General Assembly.
  
• GAR – General Assembly Resolution.
  
• SC – Security Council.
  
• SCR – Security Council Resolution.
  
• WAD – World Assembly Delegate.
  
• RMB – Regional Message Boards. This is at the bottom of the regions on the NationStates site.
  
• WFE - World Factbook Entry. The blurb of information on top of a regions page on the NationStates site.
  
• TG – Telegram. The personal messaging system on the NationStates site.
  

The South Pacific terms

• TSP – The South Pacific.
  
• SPINN – The South Pacific Independent News Network. The South Pacific’s newspaper.
  
• NSA – New Southern Army. The South Pacific’s army.
  
• CSS – the Committee of State Security. The South Pacific’s security committee.
  
• VD - Vice Delegate.
  
• CJ – Chief Justice. Leader of the judicial branch of The South Pacific’s government.
  
• CoA – Chair of Assembly. Leader of the Assembly of The South Pacific, and Cabinet member.
  
• MoA – Minister of Army. Leads the Ministry of the Army, the New Southern Army, and Cabinet member.
  
• MoRA – Minister of Regional Affairs. Leads the Ministry of Regional Affairs, and Cabinet member. In charge of rollplays, …
  
• MoFA – Minister of Foreign Affairs. Leader of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Cabinet member. In charge of most communiqué with all outside regions.
  
• TSPU – The South Pacific University.
  
• BoR – Bill of Rights – In particular, The Bill of Rights in the Charter of The South Pacific.
  
• PM – Personal Message.
  

Regions

• TNP is The North Pacific.
  
• TWP is The West Pacific.
  
• TEP is The East Pacific.
  
• TP is The Pacific.
  
• TRR is The Rejected Realms.
  
• GV is Gatesville.
  
• 10K or XKI is 10000 Islands.
  
• NPO - New Pacific Order - The Pacific
  
• Euro - Europeia
  
• TNI - The New Inquistion
  
• LKE - Land of Kings and Emperors
  

Military and Gameplay

• GP – Gameplay. Any action taken on the Nationstates Site.
  
• Raider - Someone who attacks other regions by taking the delegacy with World Assembly endorsements.
  
• Defender - Someone who tries to combat raiders.
  
• ADN - Alliance Defense Network
  
• ACC - Atlantic Central Command / Atlantic Alliance
  
• LWU - Lone Wolves United.
  
• TBH - The Black Hawks
  
• RLA - Red Liberty Alliance
  
• TBR - The Black Riders
  
• NPA - North Pacific Army
  
• PA - Pacific Army
  
• EPSA - East Pacific Sovereign Army
  
• RRA - Rejected Realms Army
  
• FRA - Founderless Regions Alliance
  
• UDL - United Defenders League
  
• UIAF - United Imperial Armed Forces (TNI, LKE, Albion)
  
• TITO – Thousand Island Treaty Organization. The military of 10000 Islands.
  

[/spoiler]

[Kris Kringle]

Some of these aren't acronyms, just want to point that out. You also missed VD. :)
(Aren't Warzones also GCRs?)

[Rebel-topia]

Maybe not acronyms, but definitely terms new people wouldnt understand. And Ill add VD and the WZs tonight

[Escade]

Next weekend I'll work on putting together all the wonderful articles that everyone's written and shared into one cohesive place (and a pdf file if I can). 

 

Thank you everyone

[Awesomiasa]

The Who's Who of the South Pacific In the Government and Adminstration

 

Below is a list of prominent South Pacificans, complete with a short bio about them, and their country of origin. Where multiple flags are listed, the country of birth takes precedence. Nicknames or alternative names are in parentheses.

 

[spoiler]

 

Administrators and Moderation

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Hileville (Hile) - Root administrator of the forums

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Belschaft (Bel) - Forum administrator and former Delegate

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Drugged Monkeys (DM) - Forum administrator, last Minister of Security, first Minister of the Army

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> HEM - Forum administrator, former Delegate, founder of Europeia

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Rebeltopia (Rebel) - Forum administrator, current Chair of the Assembly

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Southern Bellz (SB) - Forum administrator, former Delegate, current Minister of the Army

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Todd McCloud (Todd) - Forum administrator

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Tsunamy (Tsu) - Forum administrator, one of the oldest TSPers

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Eluvatar (Elu) - Content administrator, designer for Coat of Arms

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Escade - Global Moderator, current Delegate

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Kris Kringle (Kringalia/Santa/Kris) - Global Moderator, current Vice Delegate 

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> 

Government

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Sandaoguo (Glen-Rhodes/G-R) - current Minister of Foreign Affairs, prominent Gameplayer

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Awe (Awesomiasa) - current Minister of Regional Affairs

<p style="margin-left:40px;"> Farengeto - current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

[/spoiler]

[Arbiter08]

On the assembly introduction we need to include Raven's post about the assembly, found here: http://forums.thesouthpacific.org/topic/...-assembly/

[Escade]

Something brief on R\D by hobbes: http://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=162651

[Unibot]

Something brief on R\D by hobbes: http://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=162651

 

>_> I have talked to him before about the massive bias in that article. I'd be up for editing that guide however. Most guides tend to be neutralist-bias, Nai's was just as bad as Hobbes (if not worse, since it called for the abandonment of defending subtlety ). 

[Escade]

Hey Uni, yep. I will work on this next week or as soon as I can. I'll have a couple of people including you look at it for "neutrality."  I'm sure I'll be adding some of my own commentary