The Almighty NationStates FAQ

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:12 am

The Almighty NationStates FAQ
This is a general FAQ about the mechanics of NationStates. It may not be as specific as you require for your needs. Please refer below for more specific area FAQ's/help threads.
One Stop Rules Shop | Regional Raiding/Defending Military Guide | Guide to the Security Council | General Assembly Q&A | GA Proposal Rules | Sports RP FAQ | Economics & Trade Help Desk | General Roleplay FAQ | Factbook & National Info Guide

Grand Index of FAQ Thread Custodians
This thread has been reposted many, many, many times and is a co-operative work of the NS Public at the aim of providing a index of technical assistance for users. We thank all of those who have given their time and effort in the past to keep this repository of knowledge updated.

Qaaolchoura - (2003 - 2004) - Qaa's Thread
Goobergunchia - (2004 - 2011) - Goober's Thread
Mousebumples - (2011 - 2015) - Mouse's' Thread
Hobbesistan - (2015 - 2020) - Hobbes' Thread (formerly this thread)
Lord Dominator - (2020-present) - Dominator's Thread (this thread)

I will work to keep this updated with questions that are commonly posed in this forum. Of course, if you have additional information to add or a question to ask, please feel free to add a reply to this thread.

GAMEPLAY

How do I increase my population?
How do I declare war? How do I trade with other nations?
How do I invade another region?
My nations description is saying contradictory things!

GAME MECHANICS

What language is this site coded in?
I have two nations and whenever I am logged into one it logs me into the other.
When do the updates run? What do they do? How long do they take to complete?

FLAGS

Why can some nations have such a large flag?
Why is the flag I uploaded auto-resizing to something smaller?
How do I get a cool flag if I don’t have any graphic skill?
My flag isn't updating after I upload a new one. / It says I have outstanding issues, but I've answered them. / Page X doesn’t look like it’s supposed to.

CUSTOMIZABLE FEATURES

Can we add national leader/capital/religion?
Can we add a new customizable field of another sort then?
Can Mods change my nation name?
There's no active nation with the name [XYZ]. But the game won't let me create a new nation with that name. Why?
How do I change my national pretitle?

THE WORLD ASSEMBLY

I’ve seen all sorts of acronyms around the World Assembly. What do they stand for?
I know that I can have only one WA nation. How many non WA nations may I have?
What's a Historical Resolution?
What does being a Delegate do?
I have the most endorsements in my region, so how come I am not the delegate?
What if there are two WA nations with the same number of endorsements?
I've got a new e-mail address. Will my WA status be affected if I put it in my settings page?
Is WA status retained when my nation is resurrected?
How long is the e-mail accepting me into the WA valid for?

FORUMS

How do I create a poll for my post?
What (and where) is the User Control Panel?
How do I set my signature?
How do I post pictures?
Can I upload images to the forums?
Free image hosting sites include:
Hey I have a great Idea! Lets split International Incidents into past/present/future (and possibly fantasy) timelines subforums.
I can't view images/signatures/avatars! How do I fix this?
How do I post smilies?
What software is used for the forums?
How do I link a specific post?
Why are some of my forum posts missing from the search results?

ISSUES

Why do I keep getting the same issues?
How many issues can I have per day?
How can I change my position on an issue?
What is a 'Issue Chain'?
How do I submit a new issue?

MODERATION

Can the mods delete my nation for me?
Well, I’ll just break some rules then to get the mods to delete my account!
How can I resurrect a nation?
Is WA status retained when my nation is resurrected?

REGIONS

How do I create a region?
What does the regional administration page do?
What happens if someone is kicked out of the Rejected Realms?
What is a “Feeder” ?
What are Warzones?
What if there are two WA nations with the same number of endorsements?
How can I become my region's founder?
But my region doesn't have a founder/has a dead founder and we want to get it one.
What formatting tags can we use in World Factbook Entries?
What formatting tags can I use in Telegrams?
How do I recruit for my region?
What formatting tags can I use on my region’s Civil Headquarters?
How is a region picked to be the featured region?
What executive actions can Founders and Delegates do?
What do Regional Officers do?
What region should I move to?

CODING

How do I code X, Y, Z?
How do I change the size of my text on the forums?
How do I code Proposal links for Telegrams?
How do I code images on the forums?
How do I code to align my text in a certain way?
How do I code spoiler tags?
How do I quote another person's post?
How do I link directly to a specific post?
How do I create a list?

TROPHIES

What trophies are there?
What on EARTH is an Easter Egg?
Can regions earn trophies?
Are the trophies cumulative?
Do I lose my trophy for writing a WA resolution if it gets repealed?
I've written WA resolutions and/or submitted issues with one of my puppets. Can I move the trophies I've earned there to my main nation?
I was listed as a co-author on a WA resolution. Can I get a trophy for that?
What's a Historical Resolution?
Can I put these trophies on my NS Wiki page?
Can you add trophy for any nation who has ..... ?

MISCELLANEOUS

Who is [violet]?
Where is the famous memberlist?
Is the photo with the weird mask really a picture of SalusaSecondus?
About the Players

USEFUL/RARE PAGES

Player accessible pages that aren't on the main menu
Information for script authors
Purely of historical interest
Unofficial semi-offsite pages of interest

Thanks to Sedgistan for his assistance in clarifying some of these answers.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:14 am

GAMEPLAY

How do I increase my population?
You can't. Your population increases automatically every 24 hours, so long as your nation exists.

How do I declare war? How do I trade with other nations?
Both war and trade are role played – mostly through the forums.

WAR is run through the International Incidents subforum.

TRADE is run through the Global Economics and Trade subforum.
If you’re just getting started with one of these actions within the forums, for the love of all that’s holy, please be sure to read the stickies atop each forum. Stickies (noted with the little lightbulb icons) are threads that offer essential, helpful information within the given forum.

I’d also recommend checking out this thread for more information on Nation States Diplomacy.

How do I invade another region?
If you want to learn how to region-crash and take over the leadership of a different region, I’d suggest checking out the Gameplay subforum. You may also want to look into joining (or creating) an alliance of like-minded nations since it’s all-but-impossible to successfully invade another region with only one WA nation. WA multi-ing is illegal – as detailed here.

My nations description is saying contradictory things!
Yup. That’s pretty much par for the course with NationStates. There have been some suggestions in the past to allow people to change the “environment” in which their national animal frolics. Of course, nothing has changed in that respect as of yet, and some people have fun having their national animal, the seahorse, frolic freely in their nation's many lush forests.

Basically, there are a number of different facets to your national description that is all based on separate aspects of the game. Some parts of your national descriptions are almost set in stone. These aspects are very difficult to change, especially for more established nations. The final paragraph is based on your last 4 issue choices and changes with each subsequent issue decision. As such, it’s not uncommon for these areas of your nation to be in conflict.

For example, a popular complaint used to be that a nation that was listed as an Anarchy had no government in the first paragraph, but an "omni-present" government in the second. This was because the player had met the requirements to become an anarchy (none of which have to do with government size), but had done so through massive government intervention.

The solution? Well, there really isn't one. You can take whichever of the contradictory descriptors you want to be the "correct" description of your nation, but the game would practically have to be rewritten from the ground up to get these contradictions out. No matter how important you think it is that you have a coherent national description, it’s not going to happen. If this really bothers you, you can write your own national page (complete with national description!) on NSWiki.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:15 am

Game Mechanics

What language is this site coded in?
Perl for the game and PHP for the forums.

I have two nations and whenever I am logged into one it logs me into the other.
This should be less of a problem since the redesign of the site. The “Switch” button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen should allow you to switch between nations.

If the issue persists, you may have issues with an “Auto-login” cookie. When you login to one of your nations, be sure that the “Remember Me” box isn’t checked.

When do the updates run? What do they do? How long do they take to complete?
There are two update times, which are frequently referred to as the Major Update and the Minor Update.

The WA Delegacy may change in a given region with each update, depending on WA endorsements. (More details on this below.) WA Rankings are updated during the Major Update. Each region updates at its own time, so one region may have WA rankings based on the “Largest Cheese Export Sector” and another based on “Most Avoided.” Once the Major Update is completed, all regions will be ranked based on the same WA ranking category and The World lists World WA rankings under that same category.

The updates start at 12 am (Major) and 12pm (Minor), Eastern (U.S.) Time. The duration of the update depends on how many regions and nations there are to update. Typically, major is over within 1-2 hours, and minor is over within 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.

To determine what time the updates start in your time zone, I’d recommend checking out the World Assembly page when there is a proposal At Vote. Votes always end at one of the updates, and the page will list the time remaining until the vote ends, which should be a clue as to what time the update occurs in your time zone.

Alternatively, you can use this time zone converter.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:16 am

FLAGS

Why can some nations have such a large flag?
Back in the “olden days” (February 2011 and earlier

), the flag size limit was based solely on file size – the dimensions of your flag didn’t matter as much, so long as you could get the image under the 12KB limit.

Nations with flags that are larger than the current size restrictions uploaded their flags before the auto-resizing feature was added. Their flags were “grandfathered” in, so to speak. However, should they ever change their nation’s flag, their large flag will be lost.

Why is the flag I uploaded auto-resizing to something smaller?

[violet] wrote:The server now attempts to resize flags to fit within 214x142 pixels, and generate thumbnails.

Both height and width must fit, so if your image is perfectly square, it will wind up as 142x142.

There are 3 “loopholes” to get around these restrictions, if you’re interested in having a (somewhat) larger flag. They won’t allow for flags as big as some that you’ll see older nations flying proudly. [violet] elaborated further on these loopholes in this thread.

How do I get a cool flag if I don’t have any graphic skill?
Check out this Flag Makers/Requests thread in the Gameplay subforum. There are individuals who are willing to help make flags for others. Please read the opening post of the thread for whatever they require from you to create a quality flag.

My flag isn't updating after I upload a new one. / It says I have outstanding issues, but I've answered them. / Page X doesn’t look like it’s supposed to.
This problem is related to your browser’s cache. The page is updating correctly; however, your browser is still remembering an old version of the page. This is done by your browser to help save bandwidth and memory.

If this is happening, you can try to force a full refresh (Ctrl+F5 or Ctrl+R – this shortcut varies some by browser.), which may help. If this does not solve the problem, you should be able to clear your cache from your browser settings.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:16 am

CUSTOMIZABLE FEATURES

Can we add national leader/capital/religion?
Yes. These fields are each unlockable via the Issues that you answer. You become eligible for each issue once you reach a specific population threshold.

Capital City: 250 million citizens
Leader: 750 million citizens
Religion: 1 billion citizens

Once you reach the population threshold, your Settings page will change to state: Unlockable: Awaiting Legislation.

All options on the relevant issues will unlock the field, even if the option suggests otherwise. Dismissing the issue will leave the field not unlocked, and you may leave the field blank if you have unlocked it & the game will treat it as if it isn't unlocked.

More information on this can be found here.

Can we add a new customizable field of another sort then?
I’ll let Sedge speak for me here since he’s succinct and to the point:

Sedgistan wrote:I'm sure the admins have said at some point that adding extra customisable fields would be nice, but isn't high up the priority list.

Can Mods change my nation name?
No, they cannot.

However, you may change the capitalization on any letter in your nation name (except for the first letter) in your settings.

[violet] wrote:The game code uses a nation's name as its ID, an unfortunate design decision that we are stuck with. Renaming a nation would break all references to it in regions, player Dossiers, the WA, etc.

As such, if you have a typo in your nation name, you have 2 (obvious) options:
(1) Create a new nation *without* the typo to use instead.
(2) Roleplay the nation name as what you want it to be. (This selection is really your only choice if the name you want has been taken by another nation.)

There's no active nation with the name [XYZ]. But the game won't let me create a new nation with that name. Why?
Believe it or not, NationStates has been around for a loooong time. Many MANY nations have both existed (and ceased to exist) before you tried to create your nation.

As such, many nations have long lived and died before you tried to claim that one nation. So, how do you get it? You can see if it's available in the Boneyard, where it has several possibilities once a nation CTE's:

If the nation had under 500 million at the time of Ceasing to Exist, i.e Tails, the nation goes on a 5 year timer; if the original nation owner does not revive it before then, it becomes open to being claimed by anyone.
If the nation had over 500 million at the time of Ceasing to Exist, i.e Iraq, the nation is no longer able to be claimed by anyone except the nation founder.

How do I change my national pretitle?
Until you reach a population of over 500 million citizens, you are stuck with the pre-determined list in your Settings.

After that, you can change your pre-title – but, of course, the usual rules regarding appropriate content do apply.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:16 am

THE WORLD ASSEMBLY

I’ve seen all sorts of acronyms around the World Assembly. What do they stand for?
Yes, the World Assembly (also known as the WA) does love it’s acronyms. The most obvious ones are those most frequently used:

WA → World Assembly
GA → General Assembly (one of the WA’s chambers)
SC → Security Council (the second of the WA’s chambers)
UN → United Nations (the predecessor of the WA)

If you’re talking to an experienced WA player, you may see other acronyms make their way into telegrams or forum posts. GA#35 refers to GA Resolution #35, for example. CoCR is shorthand for a passed resolution – The Charter of Civil Rights. A list of passed resolutions can be found here, but if you find yourself puzzled by an acronym, ask! Most forum-goers are happy to help explain such shorthand to newbies. (And those that aren’t are probably in need of a good defenestration.)

I know that I can have only one WA nation. How many non WA nations may I have?
Some nations have multiple nations – some even have hundreds of nations!

Traditionally, non-WA nations are referred to as “puppets.” Of course, some elect not to have their main nation in the WA and instead have a WA-puppet.

What's a Historical Resolution?
These are resolutions that were passed under the United Nations, which preceded the WA. A complete list of these resolutions can be found here.

What does being a Delegate do?
WA Delegates are able to Approve Proposals. (Proposals require approval by at least 6% of the Regional Delegates in order for them to come to a vote.)

WA Delegates also have extra votes for WA Proposals that are At Vote. They receive 1 vote for each endorsement, as well as their own individual vote. For example, a WA Delegate with 5 WA endorsements has a total of 6 votes.

WA Delegates may have access to Regional Administration for their region. If your region has an active Founder, they may disable Delegate access to protect the security of the region. However, if your Founder has Ceased to Exist (CTE), the Delegate is automatically granted access.

I have the most endorsements in my region, so how come I am not the delegate?
The delegacy does not change over until the region updates with the Major or Minor Updates. If you are trying to invade a region and take over the delegacy, you need to be sure that you have more endorsements before the region starts to update. If you gain more endorsements after the update has started, you will not become the delegate until the next update.

What if there are two WA nations with the same number of endorsements?
If there is a tie in endorsement count involving the current delegate, the delegacy will not change over. In order for a nation to become the new delegate, they need to have more endorsements than the present delegate.

Other than that, if the current delegate is not involved in the tie, as Pyth said, "it's ... complicated."

I've got a new e-mail address. Will my WA status be affected if I put it in my settings page?
Not at all.

Is WA status retained when my nation is resurrected?
No, all nations resurrected are automatically resigned from the WA. However, you can re-apply your nation as long as you don't have any other WA nations.

How long is the e-mail accepting me into the WA valid for?
It's good until it gets bumped out of the queue. The WA only keeps track of some number of applications at a time, and then it drops the old ones. The length of time that takes is variable, but you can always reapply to the WA if your e-mail acceptance has expired.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:17 am

FORUMS

How do I create a poll for my post?
When you’re creating a new topic, there’s a section labeled Options to the bottom of the page – below the text area and the submit button. While Options is the default, you can select the Poll Creation tab, if you’d like. You then fill in your poll details there, and it is posted with your new thread.

Polls can also be added to a thread after the fact, provided that you are the Original Poster.

What (and where) is the User Control Panel?
If you click on the “User Control Panel” link under the Board Index link on the top left-hand corner of the forum, you will have access to all sorts of tools on the forum for your national profile.

There are four different tabs to pick from when viewing your control panel:

The first page (Overview) allows for you to manage your subscriptions (if you are notified of updates to given topics - note that these are no longer supported with email updates), manage your bookmarks (for certain topics you bookmarked for easy reference), and manage your drafts (should you have any saved for future posting). You also, if you have a warning level, can see your warning level from the front page of the User Control Panel, shown Here
The second tab (Profile) allows you to edit your profile (and set things like your website, location, occupation, and interests) and edit your signature. (More information on creating a signature below.)
The third tab (Board Preferences) allows you to set various board settings. Edit global settings involves setting your timezone, DST, date format, and whether users or admins can contact you by email. Edit posting defaults allows you to determine whether you want to enable BBcode, smilies, and/or your signature with each of your posts. You can also set the board to auto-notify you of replies to your posts, if you'd like. Edit display options allows you to sort and determine which posts and topics are auto-displayed. This also allows you to adjust what sort of features are shown when you view others' posts.
The fourth tab (Friends & Foes) allows you to set your Friends (those you communicate with frequently) and Foes (those you'd prefer to not communicate with). Setting an individual as a Foe “minimizes” their posts – although they are still shown and can be expanded to allow you to read their post. Understandably, mods and admins are unable to be set as foes.

How do I set my signature?
As stated above, you can set your signature by going into the User Control Panel. Under the profile tab, you'll want to select the “Edit Signature” option.

Your signature has an 800 character limit – which, sadly, includes BBCode – and also an 8-line limit, per the OSRS.

OSRS wrote:Signature Spam: Forum signatures give you space to include a few carefully selected links or quotes. Sigs are attached to every post, and must therefore conform to clutter-reducing rules. Maximum size should never exceed eight lines, including blank lines and quote lines. (A short quote takes up 5 lines - "quote", attribution line, two lines for the box, and one line for the quote). Large font sizes should be avoided and may be trimmed without warning. Posting forbidden links is not allowed.

If you need help making your signature shorter (in terms of line length) or if you're not sure if it's too long, please check out Reppy's Sig Workshop for assistance.

How do I post pictures?
Place the url of an image in between the [img] tags.

Code: Select all: [img]http://www.imageurl.com/image.jpg[/img]

There is a maximum size of 900x900 pixels and if you exceed that you will get an error message.

Can I upload images to the forums?
No. If you want to post any images, they need to be hosted elsewhere. Also, you should not hotlink from another website as they may change the content of the image to something that breaks the forum rules. If this happens, you will be held responsible for the content, even if that is not what you meant to post.

Free image hosting sites include:

Hey I have a great idea! Lets split International Incidents into past/present/future (and possibly fantasy) timeline subforums.
No. Per the mods, Max has said that he doesn’t want the forums split up anymore than it already is.

I can't view images/signatures/avatars! How do I fix this?
Go into your User CP > Board Profile > Edit Display Options > Set the appropriate radio buttons to "Yes" > Submit

How do I post smilies?
Click the buttons to the right of your post. If they don't show up, you'll have to go to your User CP > Board Profile > Edit Posting Defaults to enable them.

What software is used for the forums?
The code is written with php, and the forum software is phpbb.

How do I link a specific post?

To link a specific post, you simply click on the small page icon (Highlighted in orange in the image) next to the 'by-line' (The authors name and date of posting) just below the title of the post. Once clicked, you will be directed to a direct link to that post; Simply copy that URL and you're set!

Why are some of my forum posts missing from the search results?
Firstly, make sure it is not Thursday, because that is currently when the forum search index is rebuilt: while the search index is rebuilt, posts may temporarily disappear from the search results.
Secondly, make sure that the post you are looking for is not in Forum 7, because Forum 7 threads are deleted (pruned) after seven days of inactivity.
(With credit to Minoa for writing this one.)

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:17 am

ISSUES

Why do I keep getting the same issues?
When the game started, there were only 30 different issues, and each nation only qualified for a few of them. Later, [violet] (in all her greatness) coded an interface which allows game mods to edit player-submitted issues.

New players still only get the first 30 for their first couple of weeks. There are now over 400, yet the older ones still seem to repeat more often. (The whole list of issues can be found here.)

How many issues can I have per day?
The game only permits a maximum of four issues per nation per day (technically one every six hours). If you want more, you can use multiple nations. However, you can also have fewer - the other options are every twelve hours (two per day), every twenty-four hours (one per day), every forty-eight hours (every other day), and enabling 'Vacation Mode' disables issues entirely for that nation (as well as extending its CTE date by 60 days).

How can I change my position on an issue?
All of the issues - except for Easter Eggs - can eventually be repeated. As mods have said before, just because you make a decision on an issue (or decide to dismiss an issue) doesn’t mean that your citizens won’t make you answer the issue again!

What on EARTH is an Easter Egg?
It's a specific kind of issue - and each Easter Egg issue can only be answered one time per nation. This thread contains a list of all known easter egg issues and their preconidtions for receiving the issue. Read at your own spoiler risk.

What is a 'Issue Chain'?
A 'Issue Chain' is a story of sorts - It starts with a single issue you get, and the story can take several paths to completion; changing your nation along the way. While it offers a more 'intimate' (The hawwwwt issues editors ensured this) story, it is important not to "break the chain", as Issue Chains are only one-time, and failing to answer or dismissing any of the issues in the chain means you don't get it again. At the time of this posting, there is one major issue chain, 'Diamonds Are An Expat's Best Friend!', with multiple paths to take (a average being of 5 issues depending on how you chart it) and serveral other one-off chains you can find in your NSing experience.

How do I submit a new issue?
After you have over 500 million citizens, you can Submit an Issue. You’ll find the link at the bottom of your Issues page.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:18 am

MODERATION

Can the mods delete my nation for me?
No. The mods will not delete a nation by request. If you want your nation to die, you need to not log-in for 28 days. If you don’t think you’ll be able to stay away, you should scramble your password (i.e. bang on your keyboard a few times to get a random combination of keystrokes) and delete your email address from the Settings page.

Well, I’ll just break some rules then to get the mods to delete my account!
This approach is typically referred to as “suicide-by-mod,” and it is not recommended. Depending on what you do, you could end up IP-banned from the site, which means you’d never be able to come back. If you ever wanted to come back in the future, you wouldn’t be able to do so.

How can I resurrect a nation?
If your nation has Ceased to Exist (CTE), it can be resurrected by simply logging into the nation again. A resurrected nation will always be “reborn” in one of the three Sinkers, Lazarus, Osiris or Balder. From there, you are more than welcome to return your nation to its previous regional home. It is however, important to note that when your nation CTE's, your influence in regions will degrade over time, and, in addition, upon resurrecting it, the nation is cleared from all regional bans by World Assembly Delegates and Founders.

If your nation was deleted due to rule breaking, you will not be able to get that nation name back. Unless you are considered a Delete on Sight (DOS) or have been IP-banned, you are able to make a new nation.

Is WA status retained when my nation is resurrected?
No, all nations resurrected are automatically resigned from the WA. However, you can re-apply your nation as long as you don't have any other WA nations.

Previously, when you rejoined the WA with a resurrected nation, your endorsements (given and received) were also re-established. However, this was changed in a recent update, so you will need to re-endorse those that you wish to support in your region.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:19 am

REGIONS

How do I create a region?
On your (current) region's page, it says "Tired of life in (region name)?" Click that link and click Create a New Region. Complete the fields on the page that follows and hit “Create Region.” You will now be located in your new region.

What does the regional administration page do?
It allows you to bar/unbar delegate and regional officer access to regional control, ban/unban members, eject members, update your factbook entry, and password protect your region.

You can only ban members that are either presently in your region or who are on your Regional Happenings.

What happens if someone is kicked out of the Rejected Realms?
Any nations ejected from a region are moved to The Rejected Realms. As a result, The Rejected Realms are not allowed to eject any nations, nor is it allowed to ban any nations (as ejected nations must go to The Rejected Realms).

In addition, all Game Created Regions (The Rejected Realms, The Sinkers, The Feeders, & The Warzones) may not password protect their regions as they all serve some purpose to the game as a whole except with the temporary passwords allowed by Z-Day. Finally, should a nation be banned from Lazarus/Osiris/Balder, it will still be resurrected in one of those regions should it CTE elsewhere and be resurrected (the nation may then be re-banned).

What is a “Feeder” ?
Feeder regions are those where all new nations are born. There are five, and they are also commonly called the Pacifics.

What is a "Sinker"?
Sinker regions are those where refounded nations are reborn. This used to be only Lazarus, however due to increased traffic Osiris and Balder both got added in 2011. There are three of them, though The Rejected Realms is considered a "sinker" by most, and included in this list, it's not a "sinker" by the traditional sense of the word; it functions solely as a home for nations who where banned/ejected from their previous homes.

What are Warzones?
There are 6 Warzones:

These regions are specifically setup to allow for invasion-style gameplay. The normal influence costs for ejecting and banning nations apply for the WA delegate. However, bans expire with each update, so nations can keep coming back and trying to win the delegacy again. Passwords are also not allowed. These regions are often used as a "practice ground" for invaders and defenders.

What if there are two WA nations with the same number of endorsements?
If there is a tie in endorsement count involving the current delegate, the delegacy will not change over. In order for a nation to become the new delegate, they need to have more endorsements than the present delegate.

Other than that, if the current delegate is not involved in the tie, as Pyth said, "it's ... complicated."

How can I become my region's founder?
The only way to become a region’s founder is if you were the one who created (founded) the region.

But my region doesn't have a founder/has a dead founder and we want to get it one.
Refounding can be done, but it is difficult to do so successfully. All nations must leave the region, and those that do not leave by choice can be ejected by the WA Delegate.

The region will cease to exist (just like nations do) if there are no nations living there at the next update. Once the region has CTEd, you (or someone else) can re-create the region.

What formatting tags can we use in World Factbook Entries?
You can use bold, italics, underline, color (various shades supported), Links, Mousebumples (Nation links), Monkey Island (Region links), Proposal links, and Spoilers!

You can also use a Horizontal Line:

The details on how to code these (if you’re uncertain) can be found in the CODING section of this FAQ.

What formatting tags can I use in Telegrams?
You can use bold, italics, underline, Mousebumples (Nation links), Monkey Island (Region links), and Proposal links.

How do I recruit for my region?
If you manage a region, you are able to telegram recruit for that region. You either can use stamps or Telegram API, Stamps are faster however cost money (You can pay $1 for 1000 telegrams in the Store). Or you can use Telegram API, which is a free though slower option. Ever Wandering Souls has a shweet telegram API guide Here

What formatting tags can I use on my region’s Civil Headquarters?
The Civil Headquarters is frequently also referred to as the Regional Message Board (or RMB). You can use bold, italics, underline, Mousebumples (Nation links), and Monkey Island (Region links).

How is a region picked to be the featured region?
It's selected randomly. Any region with over five members that isn't password-protected can be picked to be the featured region.

What executive actions can Founders and Delegates do?
Founders and Executive Delegates both can do the following actions:

Eject*
Ban*
Ban & Eject (Popularly known as 'banjecting')*
Edit the World Factbook Entry
Edit the Regional Flag.
Password Protect the Region*
Suppress Regional Message Board posts
Create Regional Officers (see below)

The starred (*) actions indicate these actions require Influence in the region(See All About Influence for more info) if they are being performed by the Regional Delegate or Regional Officers, however, these actions require no Influence from the Region's Founder.

What are Regional Officers?
Regional Officers are a feature that enables the Founder and or Delegate (if the Delegate is executive) to, well, delegate (pun intended) their power to subordinates, or 'regional officers'. The powers are as follows:

Executive - This is the final executive authority. It only lies in the Founder and Delegate (if delegate is executive) and can not be given out.
World Assembly - Regional voting power on World Assembly resolutions. Reserved exclusively to a regions Delegate.
Appearance - Change the regions flag/world factbook entry.
Border Control - Eject/Ban & eject members from a region, and set/remove a regional password. Regional Officers need x2 the amount of influence a Delegate does to preform the same action. An Executive Delegate may only appoint 1 Regional Officer with Border Control powers every 26 hours.
Embassies - Accept requests, close, and make requests with other regions for embassies.
Communications - Send regional TG's without stamps/etc and suppress RMB messages (a nation must hold an unchanged position for 26 hours before being able to use Communications powers).
Polls - Lord Codger has blessed you, you may set/remove regional polls!

Any nation may have up to 12 regional officers, and the powers of a regional officer are retained into they are dismissed. It does not take any influence to appoint or dismiss a Regional Officer as a Delegate/Founder.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:19 am

CODING
How do I code X, Y, Z?
Reppy has a lot of the codes for the forum outlined here. There is also this BBCode guide. However, I’ll run through some of the more common/frequently used codes here, as well. (If there are others you’d like to see added, please reply with what else you’d want added, and I will happily do so.)

BOLD

Code: Select all: [b]BOLD[/b]

ITALICS

Code: Select all: [i]ITALICS[/i]

UNDERLINE

Code: Select all: [u]UNDERLINE[/u]

~~STRIKEOUT~~

Code: Select all: [strike]STRIKEOUT[/strike]

RED BLUE GREEN (You can also use the Hexadecimal RGB color code, if you’re familiar with those. A list of codes for those colors can be found here.)

Code: Select all: [color=red]RED[/color] [color=blue]BLUE[/color] [color=green]GREEN[/color]

LINK

Code: Select all: [url=http://www.nationstates.net]LINK[/url]

Mousebumples (Use the name of the nation in question where I have my nation name inserted.)

Code: Select all: [nation]Mousebumples[/nation]

Monkey Island (Use the name of the region in question where I have my region’s name inserted.)

Code: Select all: [region]Monkey Island[/region]

Horizontal Line:

Code: Select all: [hr][/hr]

How do I change the size of my text on the forums?

Code: Select all: [size=100]Normal Size Font[/size]

Font size is determined based on a numbering system. 100 (as listed in the coding example above) is "normal" size. Smaller numbers shrink the font size. Larger numbers enlarge the font size.

This is size 50.
This is size 75.
This is size 100 (normal).
This is size 125.
This is size 150.
This is size 200.
This is size 300.

How do I code Proposal links for Telegrams?
(1) Go to the WA Proposal Page (the GA or SC specific pages are fine) and find the proposal in the list.
(2) Right above the title of the proposal, there should be a line that reads: ID: nationname_234189435 (the numbers will be random). Copy paste this text (not the link) to your computer’s clipboard.
(3) Paste that into the coding below:

Approve! (You can put whatever you want where I have “Approve!” typed – you can type in the name of your proposal, for instance.)

Code: Select all: [proposal=gran_bolivaria_1297175383]Approve![/proposal]

If you click on the ID link that will give you a direct link to the proposal, which you can use to link to the proposal on the forums or elsewhere.

How do I code images on the forums?
Place the url of an image in between the [img] tags.

Code: Select all: [img]http://www.imageurl.com/image.jpg[/img]

How do I code to align my text in a certain way?
There are 4 alignment options:

Left (default on most browsers)

Right

Centered

Justified (Which only differs from Left when the text in question is long enough to take up multiple lines of continuous text. As a result, I'm babbling on and on with parenthetical aside in order to ensure that there is sufficient length within this tag, to make it clear how this tag differs from the Left justify option. You should notice that text tagged in this way has the first word start at the left margin and the end of the last word end at the right margin. This is accomplished by having the spacing between each word adjusted to accomplish this text appearance.)

Code: Select all: [align=left]LEFT[/align] [align=right]RIGHT[/align] [align=center]CENTERED[/align] [align=justify]JUSTIFIED[/align]

How do I code spoiler tags?

Code: Select all: [spoiler]Hidden text[/spoiler]

Code: Select all: [spoiler=Hidden Text]Hidden Text[/spoiler]

You can hide a spoiler tag within a spoiler tag. One needs to have the custom text, and the other cannot have the custom text.

Code: Select all: [spoiler=Nested Spoiler Tag]Nested Spoiler Tag[spoiler]More hidden text[/spoiler][/spoiler]

How do I quote another person's post?

Quoted text

Code: Select all: [quote]Quoted text[/quote]

Moderator wrote:Moderator quote

Code: Select all: [quote="Moderator"]Moderator quote[/quote]

The other obvious option is to click the "quote" button in the upper-right hand corner of each post.

How do I link directly to a specific post?
This image (

or

) is a direct link to the post in question. You can either use your mouse to Copy Link Location or click directly on that image. If you click on the image, the page you are directed to is the direct link to that post - Copy/Paste the url from your browser.

How do I create a list?

List
List

Code: Select all: [list][*]List [*]List[/list]

Alternate options include:
Numbered lists -

One
Two

Code: Select all: [list=1][*]One [*]Two[/list]

Lettered lists -

A
B

Code: Select all: [list=a][*]A [*]B[/list]

Roman Numerals -

I
II

Code: Select all: [list=i][*]I [*]II[/list]

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:20 am

MISCELLANEOUS

Who is [violet]?
Only the mods know for sure.

There is speculation that she may be Max Barry’s pseudonym – or she might just be Max’s codemonkey. That question is one that we players are unlikely to ever get a straight answer to.

Where is the famous memberlist?
The Memberlist and by total posts

Is the photo with the weird mask really a picture of SalusaSecondus?
Yes.

About the Players
NS Player Profiles

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:21 am

TROPHIES

What trophies are there?
It's long, so I have it behind a spoiler tag.

Can regions earn trophies?
Regions are also ranked (just like individual nations) based on how their overall population does in a given WA category compared to the rest of the World.

Per [violet]:

[violet] wrote:That seems like a natural extension, and something we'll definitely consider once we've had time to assess nation trophies.

Are the trophies cumulative?
No. If your nation falls in the rankings for a given category, the trophy will be lost with the next update.

Do I lose my trophy for writing a WA resolution if it gets repealed?
No. You keep the trophy (and the count stays the same) even if your only authored resolution is repealed.

I've written WA resolutions and/or submitted issues with one of my puppets. Can I move the trophies I've earned there to my main nation?
We haven't (officially) gotten an answer from the mods or admins, but probably not. The trophies are automatically coded to look at the data associated with a given nation. There is no method currently in place to "link" multiple nations to one main nation, so the game has no way of knowing that you're also behind other nations.

(All the more reason to use your main nation for submitting WA legislation, right?)

I was listed as a co-author on a WA resolution. Can I get a trophy for that?
As the trophies are currently coded, only the nation listed in the "Proposed By" field will get a trophy on their main nation page. It is likely quite difficult to change the code to allow co-authors to receive a trophy. After all, many SC resolutions have other nations (or regions) linked with the corresponding tags as they are relevant to the content of the resolution - not because they were involved in the drafting of the text.

Short answer: probably not.

What's a Historical Resolution?
These are resolutions that were passed under the United nations, which preceded the WA. A complete list of these resolutions can be found here.

Can I put these trophies on my NS Wiki page?
So long as you don't hotlink the images, that shouldn't be a problem. If you're unfamiliar with any free image hosts, there is a list in the FORUMS post of this FAQ.

Can you add trophy for any nation who has ..... ?
[violet] has stated that she's going to see how the present trophies work before adding any new ones. However, if you have a suggestion, I"d recommend looking at this thread.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:22 am

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:23 am

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Posting is opened after this post

by **Enfaru** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:41 am

Hobbesistan, I have no idea why people feel the need to make reserved posts (as above)...or any double posts at all, when we have things like [hr][/hr] and [anchor=webaddress_without_quotes_here][/anchor] tags which means that all of the content can be put in one neat post.

Is there a reasoning behind the incessant double posting that I'm missing? (I mean in general, it just so happens that this is the biggest example to demonstrate with).

For example what people could do is...

My Example wrote:
Title
Contents
[url=https://forums.nationstates.net/postid#Gameplay]Gameplay[/url]
[anchor=Gameplay][/anchor]Gameplay

by **Hobbesistan** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:44 am

Enfaru wrote:Hobbesistan, I have no idea why people feel the need to make reserved posts (as above)...or any double posts at all, when we have things like [hr][/hr] and [anchor=webaddress_without_quotes_here][/anchor] tags which means that all of the content can be put in one neat post.

Is there a reasoning behind the incessant double posting that I'm missing? (I mean in general, it just so happens that this is the biggest example to demonstrate with).

Because it looks (generally) more organized and less OCD tripping when I can definitively provide a post for a specific issue. Could we do it that way? Yes, but this has been the way it's been done since before the anchor tag existed and I'm partially too lazy to fix it and partially leaning towards the fact that it looks better when I can definitively put a post to a topic instead of spamming hr and anchor.

I suppose it's down to personal preference, but a post = a topic just looks more organized to me.

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