Guide to Creating a Product

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Global Economics & Trade is now on IRC. Join us at Esper.net on channel #GlobalEc

http://05.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=%23G ... .esper.net

Guide to Creating a Product

First of all, welcome to the Global Economics and Trade forum of Nationstates. This is part of the Diplomacy section, thus meaning the forum is completely in-character and any out of character posts must be noted.

This guide here will offer help to those wishing for help to make their first products. For those looking on how to improve their storefront, the guide to creating a storefront is also available.

What I am trying to offer, as a NationStates Trainer, is a step-by-step guide helping the newer nations to create quality products. Normally, the method is repeated trial and error, however with this idea, I would like to giver newbies a bit of education and some pointers of how to step off in the right direction before making their first store.

If anybody has any questions on this or a newer nation would like some basic help, feel free to send me a telegram or post a question in this thread.

Formulating a Product
Designing a Product
Finalising a Product

Handy links

• Guide to making a Storefront
• Guide to making an Automotive Storefront

General criterea a product should meet:

• All products should be well documented and every aspect of the product should be explained. The customer should not have to ask any questions.
• All products should be feasible in terms of the laws of physics, chemistry etc.
• All products should be original (don't copy real life stuff)

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Formulating a Product

So, you have looked around GE&T and decided to create your own product. Before you do, there are a few rules that you should familiarize yourself with.

Don't Plagiarize: Stealing other peoples work is completely unacceptable in all walks of life, and thus is unaccceptable on NationStates. Never copy and paste work from one website, and even re-wording the text is still unacceptable. Don't be lazy, get out there and put in the hard yards to create a brilliant product of you're own.

Don't claim to have designed real life products: Pretty much as bad as plagiarizing. Selling real life products is essentially trying to take credit for real company's and designer's work and it is a general rule on NationStates that any nation has access to any product produced in the real world. Changing the name doesn't exclude a product from this rule.

Research your product: Know your stuff. If you don't have a clue about your product, then how can you expect people to buy it off you? Not researching can also lead you to creating a product that just doesn't work, and thus will be shunned by NationStates.

Overload with information: With regards to the write-up the more things you explain, the better. Say you are building a car: Explain about the purpose of the car, the engine of the car, the transmission, suspension, interior, exterior, wheels, tyres, dimensions, features, safety aspects etc. Going into detail about all those things means the customer knows exactly what they are buying and will not ask any questions. Products with long write-ups are often great sellers.


So, lets get started.

Firstly, work out what you are going to sell. If you know exactly what you want to sell, read ahead to the next paragraph. If not, continue reading. You can determine what product you can sell based on what knowledge of the real world you already have. If you consider youself an expert on cars, make an automotive company. If you think you know your stuff when it comes to ships, create a shipping firm. You can even create an airline, or a company offering services should you choose. Or, if you spot a hole in the market you can attempt to fill it. Eg: I have never seen a Satellite company on NS. However, you should have an understanding of the market you are trying to fill otherwise your product may not be as good as it needs to be.

So, now you know what you want to design. At this time, it's crucial to give your product a bit of direction and guidance as this will help make a product that is not only feasible, but brilliantly worked.

You should know exactly what your product will and won't do. You need to think: "What am I designing this for?" Creating a product is much, much easier when you formulate a set of goals and try to stick with them. Eg: if you are desiging an assault rifle, you might aim for a high rate of fire or great accuracy. Every feature of the product should enforce at least one of these goals. Once you have your goals or your aims of the product, you will find that is much easier to design a product based around them. Make sure you set proper concrete goals; if you set ones that are too broad, vague or just plain silly (ie. my fighter jet will be the best fighter jet), your product won't be at full potential. To make a truly realistic product, consider your nation and what it might need from your new product.

By this time, you should have chosen the tech-level of your product from either Past-Technology (PT), Modern Technology (MT), Post-Modern Technology (PMT) and Future Technology (FT). It is important you stick to this level because if you stray out of it, your product will be regarded as a god-mod and won't be bought.

So far, you should have a good idea of what you want to make, and what you want it to do. Its time to start drafting and writing the design up.

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Designing your product

So, you have your idea, now its time to put it to paper.

When designing the product, it is good to give your product a reason to be bought. A customer needs to see why they should be buying this over some other product, both on NS and in RL. If you are making a fighter jet, it might be a good idea to make it lighter, make it stealthier, make it faster or just make it more maneuverable. If you are making a car, maybe you should give it technology that no other company has. This distinguishing feature could come about because of a requirement or a limitation of your NS nation. An example of this is Forza Automotive Company, which sells hybrid-hydrogen powered cars. Remember, if your product is 'just another car' or 'just another gun,' it won't sell because Nationstates doesn't buy into 'just another,' Nationstates only buys what is 'cool' and what they really see a use for.

How do you develop that idea? If you ever sit down and think about a product, you will think of things it doesn't do, but it should, or you might think of ways a product could be limited and then think of ways around that. This could be as simple as mitigating weight restrictions by using lighter materials or lowering mantinence by using fewer moving parts. Above all else, be creative and don't be afraid to try something that hasn't been done before. But just remember, these features, gadgets, technolgies and materials need to be feasible, or otherwise it won't work and people will shun your product.

Great ideas for new products can be found by simply doing your research. The internet is filled with pages and pages of new (RL) ideas which have great potential, but haven't been employed yet. If you look around hard enough, you will start finding new technologies which have great potential for use on your new product. That being said, make sure you truly have a grasp on this new technology before you try and use it.

If you intend on making a whole company with lots of products, its a good idea to put that signature feature through all your products, distinguishing them from the pack.

Now, you know what you are going to sell, its time to do your research. 99% of the time, there is a real-life product that you can compare yours to to get a basic grasp on what your product should and should not do. For example, if you are creating a fighter jet, it is good to look at several real fighters to look at basic trends. Don't just look at one product either, look at several different products from several different sources. You should also read about how they work, so you can explain how yours does as well. This doesn't mean copying statistics and adding 10%, you should try and do something completely different and only use real stats as a guide to some general limitations.

After your reseach, its good to start developing the product section by section (Eg. Sections of a car would be engine, transmission, tyres, interior etc.) of the product step-by-step, to ensure that you address everything and to ensure that you go into a high amount of detail for each component. You should aim for at least one paragraph per section, however the more you write the better off you are.

Here is an example from my storefront

As you can see, I have gone into great detail about nearly every aspect of the fighter jet in question. Everything is explained in depth so people know exactly what they are buying and don't need to ask any questions at all, because you have answered all of them. However, you don't need to explain everything, what kind of material is used for the seat of the fighter jet, the width of the a-pillars of a car. You can explain it, but it really isn't needed. It is up to you to determine the important parts of the product you are making, and explain them accordingly.

How to write in depth?

Start by writing out the basics, a simple introduction to your product covering what it is, when it was developed and who it was developed by. It also pays to add in why it is developed and you should summarize your introduction with why the customer should buy your product.

When you begin to write about the components, always think of why you were designing this product and how you want to make it the best product on the market, in your opinion. Start by explaining what the component is; for example this wing is a delta shaped wing made of composite materials. Next, say why the wing is the way it is, a delta wing shape offers the following advatages.... composite materials offer these advantages... thus this wing is now better because... and then say how this wing makes the aircraft better overall.

An even more in depth example is the R2 Rifle. This amazing piece of work by Vault 10 shows how every part of a product can be articulated upon.

Never forget that a product cannot be exempt from the laws of physics and chemistry. If you want to make a Mach 10 fighter aircraft, go for it but you need to explain in your write up how it achieves what it does.

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Finalizing your Product

So, your product has been screened, its write-up is complete and every thing is explained in sufficient detail. Thats the hardest part done.

Now, you need to work out pricing for your product. Again, turn toward real-life products for a general idea but remember to compensate for the differences between your products. Be sure not to make it to cheap or to expensive. Often, the quality of a product is determined due to its pricing.

If you are selling military gear, it is a good idea to offer Domestic Production Rights. These vary depending on what kind of product you are selling. If the DPR's are too expensive, nobody will be able to afford them. If they are too cheap, nobody will buy the product, just the DPR's. As a basic guide, pricing for a DPR should usually be the price of 1,000,000 of the product for small arms, 10,000 for vehicles, 1,000 for aircraft, and 100 for naval vessels

You should also develop pictures for your product. Let me first state that there is no requirement for having a picture, but it will certainly attract more interest if you do have one. A picture only serves as a graphical representation of the product, it does not substitute a write up or even part of a write up. There are several ways to do this.

The first and worst way of doing it is getting an image of a real life product from google images and posting it straight on. This should not be done under any circumstances. If you are selling a new tank, don't use an Abrams picture, otherwise people get the impression that they are buying an Abrams as opposed to your tank.

The second way of doing it is getting pictures of concept and future 'computer-generated' images from the web. You can edit these slightly and upload them to a website such as Photobucket or Imageshack, then put them into place. Provided the images aren't recognisable, they can be quite effective. However, ensure that the image matches the product. This can be the tricky part. That being said, if you are going to use the second method, ensure that nobody else is using that photo first.

The third way of doing it is making your own artwork from scratch. You can do this using Paint.net, Google Sketchup, AutoCAD or some other Computer Animated Design program. Here you have the advantage of the picture perfectly matching, personalizing the image and no risk of someone using the same image. Lineart, which is essentially a 2D representation of your product, is relatively easy to do and doesn't require powerful computer generating software.

For great effect, try teaming your own artwork with RL pictures of components of your product (say, engine, gun barrel, air intakes, armour) or diagrams of components of your product. This gives it a great brochure-like effect which not only looks professional, but can also help explain the product you are trying to sell.

You should create tables of important information such as specifications, to allow customers to flick through to the hard facts if they can't be bothered reading the write-up.

So now, you have your product. Happy selling.

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Im open to suggestions on this

[Falkasia]

OOC: Nice guide Mikoyan. Looks good and should go a lnog way to helping out beginning nations!

[Johz]

I'm fine with all the ideas, but I just wonder how I can actually draw my products. I am not very good at art, especially on a computer. What should I do other than steal photographs off the internet?

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

I'm fine with all the ideas, but I just wonder how I can actually draw my products. I am not very good at art, especially on a computer. What should I do other than steal photographs off the internet?

Number of things you can try. Paint.net and GoogleSketchup are great free software that you can download off the internet. I know that Googlesketchup comes with a tutorial and Paint.net is very simple so they may be the best bet for a beginning artist.

There is simply no wax-on-wax-off with doing art, and it will take alot of practice and perseverance to ultimately acheive what image you are looking for. It can be time consuming but also very rewarding.

[Apachawk]

Iv seen people creating their own guns, how do you do that or what computer program do you use?

[New Gratislavia]

pimp my gun.com

[Apachawk]

I created my gun, and i uploaded it, but not all of it shows b/c its too big, how do i make it fit?

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Use microsoft image editior.

[Apachawk]

Use microsoft image editior.

does anything else work or a way to still use picturebucket

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Use microsoft image editior.

does anything else work or a way to still use picturebucket

If you are using microsoft, you should be able to edit it via Microsoft Image editor. Just right click on the image, select open with, then select Microsoft Image editor. Then use the resize tool.

Photobucket.com has an image resizer as well.

[Kalasparata]

Help me with this please
http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=63619

[Yodobashi]

i want to create a gun shop, but the last thing i want to do is embarrass myself by making a horrible gun shop cause im new. I just have a few questions though. I plan to make my guns on pimpmygun. Does the picture have to correspond with what you say. For example lets say you put a 5.56mm clip on your gun and in the description you say it fires 6.8mm or something. and does the picture have to work. Like lets say you put an ak47 barrel on a pistol. Even though it technically wouldnt work, can you still say it will for the sake of the game?

thanks

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

i want to create a gun shop, but the last thing i want to do is embarrass myself by making a horrible gun shop cause im new. I just have a few questions though. I plan to make my guns on pimpmygun. Does the picture have to correspond with what you say. For example lets say you put a 5.56mm clip on your gun and in the description you say it fires 6.8mm or something. and does the picture have to work. Like lets say you put an ak47 barrel on a pistol. Even though it technically wouldnt work, can you still say it will for the sake of the game?

thanks

Yes, the picture should represent exactly what you are trying to sell. However, it is quite hard to pick the difference between a 5.56 clip and a 6.8mm clip when the two aren't shown next to each other in comparison so there would be a good chance you could get away with it. There are limits to that though, if your picture shows a bolt action rifle and your write up suggests its a semi automatic, it won't work.

And because the write-up has to work, the picture which matches the write up should work as well. The real life laws of physics don't get put on hold within nationstates. Something needs to be feasible for it to sell.

[Yodobashi]

i want to create a gun shop, but the last thing i want to do is embarrass myself by making a horrible gun shop cause im new. I just have a few questions though. I plan to make my guns on pimpmygun. Does the picture have to correspond with what you say. For example lets say you put a 5.56mm clip on your gun and in the description you say it fires 6.8mm or something. and does the picture have to work. Like lets say you put an ak47 barrel on a pistol. Even though it technically wouldnt work, can you still say it will for the sake of the game?

thanks

Yes, the picture should represent exactly what you are trying to sell. However, it is quite hard to pick the difference between a 5.56 clip and a 6.8mm clip when the two aren't shown next to each other in comparison so there would be a good chance you could get away with it. There are limits to that though, if your picture shows a bolt action rifle and your write up suggests its a semi automatic, it won't work.

And because the write-up has to work, the picture which matches the write up should work as well. The real life laws of physics don't get put on hold within nationstates. Something needs to be feasible for it to sell.

So your saying if you have a few minor things off thats ok but dont make it blatantly obvious?

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

i want to create a gun shop, but the last thing i want to do is embarrass myself by making a horrible gun shop cause im new. I just have a few questions though. I plan to make my guns on pimpmygun. Does the picture have to correspond with what you say. For example lets say you put a 5.56mm clip on your gun and in the description you say it fires 6.8mm or something. and does the picture have to work. Like lets say you put an ak47 barrel on a pistol. Even though it technically wouldnt work, can you still say it will for the sake of the game?

thanks

Yes, the picture should represent exactly what you are trying to sell. However, it is quite hard to pick the difference between a 5.56 clip and a 6.8mm clip when the two aren't shown next to each other in comparison so there would be a good chance you could get away with it. There are limits to that though, if your picture shows a bolt action rifle and your write up suggests its a semi automatic, it won't work.

And because the write-up has to work, the picture which matches the write up should work as well. The real life laws of physics don't get put on hold within nationstates. Something needs to be feasible for it to sell.

So your saying if you have a few minor things off thats ok but dont make it blatantly obvious?

Rough enough is good enough is not a good mindset to get into, but you can make a few compromises.

[Cyborg Militants]

My question is does having a store actually affect your economy, or is it just for fun/competition/RP, etc.?

[United Gordonopia]

My question is does having a store actually affect your economy, or is it just for fun/competition/RP, etc.?

No, it affects your economy in no way in terms of programming in the game.

[Vihenia]

Hmm trying to make a product.. an air to air missile brochure to be more specific..

a Cross bred between Blender 3D (3D models), Corel Draw (Paintscheme) and Microsoft Excel for calculations of parameters and conversions from Blender unit

here's the brochure..

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/ ... lanker.png

[United Gordonopia]

Hmm trying to make a product.. an air to air missile brochure to be more specific..

a Cross bred between Blender 3D (3D models), Corel Draw (Paintscheme) and Microsoft Excel for calculations of parameters and conversions from Blender unit

here's the brochure..

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/ ... lanker.png

Obviously you put a lot of work into this. I'm not an expert on air to air missiles, but I can tell you that the presentation is excellent. Whenever someone designs their own art, it gives them more credibility in my and many other's eyes. And when you use a modeling program, that's even more impressive. The brochure is nice as well, it gives a realistic touch to the product.

[Sciox]

this may make me sound a bit stupid but how do you actually upload images

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

this may make me sound a bit stupid but how do you actually upload images

We have all asked that question before

To upload an image from your file, you need to make an online photo album like on Photobucket or imageshack. Then, you upload the files from your computer into that album. Once you have done that, select the images direct link and post it (the url) between the image tags ([img][/img)