RP Help...badly

[Santo Siberia]

I feel like an idiot asking this, but I've never got a firm concept of RP'ing on this site. I am a fine RP'er on a number of others, but information has yet eluded me for this one. I did read some guides, never fully understood them. I used Sunset, but could never actually find out a budget. I looked at some FAQ, which wasn't really a help. I even just watched some wars going on and never understood any of this fully. I'm just going to make a list of things I need help with, and yes, I am a new player so feel free to call me a Newbie, I just don't wanna jump into a RP without understanding a thing. So just bear with me for a bit, and I hope that one day I'll be able to actually understand all of this, and please don't reccomed those Newbie Helpers OOC things.


The List

1) How do I calculate a budget for my army?
2) What in the world is Logistics?
3) How can I calculate the amount of money I spend to give my soldiers supplies when I am at war, and have stationed them in said Enemies Nation?
4) Exactly how does creating your own weapons, nuclear missiles, and stuff like that work out?
5) Will it cost money to house your Military in your own Nation, due to being not at war?
6) Say, someones Nation, in a RP, runs out of money, and cannot continue to keep there Military in a warring nation. Is there a way to regenerate said money? Or is it gone forever?
7) Say I opened up a Storefront, do purchases from other Nations add to my total budget/money?
8) I understand that you must have atleast 100 million people in your populace or its godmodding, but how would manufacturing a nuclear missile work out? Exactly what materials will be needed, along with a research times and factories etc.

It's alot to ask about, but yah I am new to this game, and like I said before, I don't want to jump into RP'ing without having a basic understanding at first. And if this is the wrong area to post this in, please do tell me so I can get this locked, and re-create it in the correct area.

[Topid]

The List

1) How do I calculate a budget for my army?
2) What in the world is Logistics?
3) How can I calculate the amount of money I spend to give my soldiers supplies when I am at war, and have stationed them in said Enemies Nation?
4) Exactly how does creating your own weapons, nuclear missiles, and stuff like that work out? 5) Will it cost money to house your Military in your own Nation, due to being not at war?
6) Say, someones Nation, in a RP, runs out of money, and cannot continue to keep there Military in a warring nation. Is there a way to regenerate said money? Or is it gone forever?
7) Say I opened up a Storefront, do purchases from other Nations add to my total budget/money?
8) I understand that you must have atleast 100 million people in your populace or its godmodding, but how would manufacturing a nuclear missile work out? Exactly what materials will be needed, along with a research times and factories etc.

I'm not an RPer, but I'll help with the stuff I know.

1. Sites like this.
3. I think the usual accepted amount of soldiers for an army is around 10% of population. So divide the amount of funding from the site above by the number of soldiers your army would have.

The rest I think is usually up to the specific RP, and style. (For instance, some people only RP using medieval technology, so nukes there are never appropriate.) So I'll let someone who knows more about RP than I do help you out there.

Good luck, RP is confusing, that's why I never learned.

[Santo Siberia]

Thanks, you kind of covered my primaries to find out before I start to attempt RP'ing. The others where just details I wanted to find about, but hopefully I'll get those covered soon. And once again, thanks for covering those two questions.

[Kandarin]

3. I think the usual accepted amount of soldiers for an army is around 10% of population. So divide the amount of funding from the site above by the number of soldiers your army would have.

This is generally considered the extreme upper end of the portion of one's population that can be in the military, and that much is considered to be the sort of military that places a massive strain on your economy (to the point where you do not have a normal economy). Any more than that is taken as either a godmod or something requiring a very good explanation.

But to answer the OP's questions (well, some of them)...

2) What in the world is Logistics?

Logistics is the process by which your military is supplied - it is the portion of your military machine devoted to getting food, water, medicine and ammunition to your soldiers and sailors, fuel and replacement parts to your tanks, ships and planes, and transporting all of the above to and from the battlefield. In a real war, the common rule of thumb is that there will be three personnel devoted to logistics tasks for everyone devoted to actual fighting. These need to be RPed out if your troops and ships and planes are to function; logistics takes time and costs money.

4) Exactly how does creating your own weapons, nuclear missiles, and stuff like that work out?

You RP weapons development (or just having a arms industry). Some people may settle for the occasional reference to your arms industry and some name-dropping of plausible-sounding weapons. Some others are very elaborate and nitpicky about this and come up with real-world-accurate weapons designs and graphics. Not everyone has years of experience with the real-world arms industry or advanced graphics tools, though, and this might not be an option for you. Some RP groups will still insist that you explain all of your armaments in exhaustive depth; if this isn't your cup of tea, this may be your cue to find someone else to RP with.

5) Will it cost money to house your Military in your own Nation, due to being not at war?

Yes. If your troops are to be effective, they will still need to be fed, housed, treated, and kept in regular training, and their equipment and vehicles will need to be maintained and updated. This costs a lot of money and is considered a factor of your Defense budget.

6) Say, someones Nation, in a RP, runs out of money, and cannot continue to keep there Military in a warring nation. Is there a way to regenerate said money? Or is it gone forever?

Your defense budget is considered income over time. You should factor this into your RPs if you're in the sort of RP that involves constantly tracking your budget; your government has to make priorities and choose what it can and can't spend money on.

7) Say I opened up a Storefront, do purchases from other Nations add to my total budget/money?

Yes. Remember that you have to spend money to build the things that you're selling, though.

8) I understand that you must have atleast 100 million people in your populace or its godmodding, but how would manufacturing a nuclear missile work out? Exactly what materials will be needed, along with a research times and factories etc.

The 100 million rule is an International Incidents rule of thumb and doesn't apply for all groups. There's no set time for how long it takes to develop nuclear technology, but you'll need a source of uranium (or some other fuel), enrichment, a good solid load of research to split the atom, and the appropriate technology to deploy the warhead. Again, some groups will settle for the occasional reference to this over time while others will want spreadsheets and budget numbers. There's no one rule and it goes much faster if an already-nuclear nation helps you.

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Now, to be fair, I realize that all of the things I have said above probably sound very vague compared to what people in International Incidents are saying to you. This is, to some degree, tied to the point I am trying to make: While some groups in International Incidents are insistent on having highly accurate budget numbers for war RPs, they are not the only groups, International Incidents is not the only RP forum, and war isn't the only thing in NS RP. Many of us prefer to write about the leaders, culture, diplomacy, and sports of our nation instead. Outside of International Incidents, the other RP forums are much less war-focused and require less number-crunching. The official forums aren't even the only place for RP; many regions have quite elaborate RP establishments with their own plotlines, maps, and traditions. You're in Grand Central, which doesn't have a lot of that, but if you look or ask around there are others and some of them are quite good.

Of course, wars and budgets and number-crunching might be exactly what you want from a RP, and I can't judge. But I feel obligated to remind you that if your first reaction is a lot of uncertainty about how that works, you may want to look at other aspects of RP.

[The chrisman union]

2) What in the world is Logistics?

Logistics is how many resources and how long it takes to move your army around the world. Before you can start fighting in a warzone, first your soldiers need to get to said warzone.

Say you want to invade another nation. Your army can't just teleport from your homeland to your target nation. You're going to need trucks, planes, boats and other forms of transport to get your troops there. That's logistics.