NationStates

NationStates runs a number of recurring events, and we're looking to put together a "Calendar" so people can see what's happening over the next year, and when. The intention is for this to go on a dedicated Events page in the near future, but for now a forum thread is an easier way to start.

Please note that these dates/times may be subject to change in the result of unexpected events, such as unplanned admin unavailability, a moose chewing through server cables, and suchlike. Please don't plan your lives around them.

All times and dates are given in GMT.

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N-Day	September 24th 22:00 GMT	N-Day: What You Need to Know 2022 event thread
Z-Day	October 30th 22:00 GMT	(time TBC)

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Secretary-General Election	February 4th
Best Nation in the World	February 14th
N-Day	February 25th 22:00 GMT	N-Day: What You Need to Know
April Fools' Day	April 1st
Global Trade Fair	World Fair Trade Day (this year: May 13th)
Issues Contest	June 1st - 30th
Cards Against NationStates Global Games	July 1st
Secretary-General Election	August 5th
N-Day	September 30th	N-Day: What You Need to Know
Z-Day	October 30th - 31st

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Best Nation in the World	February 14th
N-Day	February 24th 22:00 GMT	N-Day: What You Need to Know
April Fools' Day	April 1st
Global Trade Fair	World Fair Trade Day (this year: May 11th)
Issues Contest	June 1st - 30th
N-Day	September 28th	N-Day: What You Need to Know
Z-Day	October 30th - 31st

The formatting is pretty crap, I know. I might prettify this at some point.

I would like to link to dispatch guides to events when good, and up-to-date ones exist. If people have suggestions for ones to link to, please post them here.

As you might see, the general goal is for most events to be held starting on a Saturday at 22:00 GMT - as mentioned in this year's N-Day thread, this is "intended to maximise the amount of NSers who can be online at the start of the event, and also so that the event as much as possible runs over weekend time, when people are most likely to be avaialble."

If there are going to be two annual SecGen elections, can you create a special telegram category for election campaigning? Otherwise the WA scene will be dead in the dust.

Also, are the dates chosen for a specific reason or just random? (For every event) (Besides being on a Saturday)

Plus you forgot Z-Day 2023 Unless that's cancelled???

Honeydewistania wrote:If there are going to be two annual SecGen elections, can you create a special telegram category for election campaigning? Otherwise the WA scene will be dead in the dust.

Yes, I'm aware that will be needed for repeat Sec-Gen elections.

Honeydewistania wrote:Also, are the dates chosen for a specific reason or just random? (For every event) (Besides being on a Saturday)

They aren't random, it's mainly around spacing with other events/repeats of the same event.

Honeydewistania wrote:Plus you forgot Z-Day 2023 Unless that's cancelled???

I only meant to add around a year in advance, rather than all of 2023... but since it's just one event, I'll add that.

I like this, and it's a good spread throughout the year.

Has there been any consideration towards bringing on dedicated volunteer "events" staff? I'm not talking about coding new equivalents to N-Day, Z-Day, etc- more for running things similar to the issues contest where it's a case of putting the word out, setting up guidelines for how it'll work, and being present for the relevant weekend.

Will there be any changes made to the Best Nation event to attempt to filter out generic puppets such as card farms? It was pretty exhausting and unrewarding to pit Womble 2615 against Womble 8462 over and over again.

Reventus Koth wrote:Will there be any changes made to the Best Nation event to attempt to filter out generic puppets such as card farms? It was pretty exhausting and unrewarding to pit Womble 2615 against Womble 8462 over and over again.

That's the only thing I'd support being WA only.

Just a suggestion


Cards Season 3: December 1 2022

Cards Season 4: December 1 2024

Den wrote:

Reventus Koth wrote:Will there be any changes made to the Best Nation event to attempt to filter out generic puppets such as card farms? It was pretty exhausting and unrewarding to pit Womble 2615 against Womble 8462 over and over again.

That's the only thing I'd support being WA only.

Strong against WA only best nation.

How about a feature that allows voters to filter out certain nations from their choices of voting? So I can choose to exclude all the Wombles form being viewable during the voter process, but they aren't excluded from the whole thing in general.

But to raise my earlier point:

Tinhampton wrote:How will the game tell the difference between Miravana 2, Miravana II, Miravana Two, and Miravana the Second?

(And what happens if I create a nation with a name like "Manchester United Supporter 2897274852" which is obviously a standalone puppet and not part of a Man United-themed puppet set? Will that still be nodded through?)

Tinhampton wrote:But to raise my earlier point:

Tinhampton wrote:How will the game tell the difference between Miravana 2, Miravana II, Miravana Two, and Miravana the Second?

(And what happens if I create a nation with a name like "Manchester United Supporter 2897274852" which is obviously a standalone puppet and not part of a Man United-themed puppet set? Will that still be nodded through?)

Easy(er said than done): allow users to filter out all the 'Miravana'.

Sedgistan wrote:April Fools' Day: April 1st

Aww, come on. You spoiled it.

Reventus Koth wrote:Will there be any changes made to the Best Nation event to attempt to filter out generic puppets such as card farms? It was pretty exhausting and unrewarding to pit Womble 2615 against Womble 8462 over and over again.

Ideally, but I cannot say when those changes would be made.

Riemstagrad wrote:Just a suggestion

Cards Season 3: December 1 2022

Cards Season 4: December 1 2024

I had a new cards season pencilled in for 1st December of each year, but it got vetoed, as they require a big redesign for each season - it's not just repeating an already coded event. It can be considered an internal goal, but not set in stone. Obviously part of bringing new Tech staff onboard is to increase capacity for changes in the long-term.

I'm Aware of What N-Day (Nuclear Death) and Z-Day are (Zombie Invasion), Can any of these events cause you to lose population?

Novosoviet wrote:I'm Aware of What N-Day (Nuclear Death) and Z-Day are (Zombie Invasion), Can any of these events cause you to lose population?

Only while they're in progress: Population gets re-set back to its proper levels afterwards.

Bears Armed wrote:

Novosoviet wrote:I'm Aware of What N-Day (Nuclear Death) and Z-Day are (Zombie Invasion), Can any of these events cause you to lose population?

Only while they're in progress: Population gets re-set back to its proper levels afterwards.

Ok Thanks!

Is it Sec-Gen election or SC President election? I thought the "Sec-Gen" election was to coincide with US Presidential elections.

Yes, Sec-Gen was re-run as it was another US election year, but it's not tied to that. Where the S-G plans got to last was to give the role SC powers only, hold elections 6 monthly, and rename it to something to avoid confusion with GenSec.

For the time being, I'm keeping the event name in this thread as Sec-Gen, because that's what it's been before and people know it as.

Sedgistan wrote:Where the S-G plans got to last was to [...] rename it to something to avoid confusion with GenSec.

For the time being, I'm keeping the event name in this thread as Sec-Gen, because that's what it's been before and people know it as.

Will the office of Secretary-General still be renamed or is SecGen an interim title while attempts to brainstorm for titles that aren't President continue?

That's beyond what this thread is meant to handle - I don't intend for this to host extended discussion on changes to individual events. You could bump the Sec-Gen thread, but I'm not intending to work on that idea at present - I want admin to clear off some of my existing to-do list first, and to get our new Tech Mods on board for their input as well.

Not to derail this thread (sorry Sedgistan!) but what IS the Secretary General, who can run for it, and what do they do? I didn't see any links on the OP that I could read to find out. Regardless of what my "join date" may tell you, I'm actually newer to the NS Forums, so I'm not completely aware of everything just yet.

So should we take all of these listed in OP for 2023 as being ~mostly~ set in stone and ready to go or is this more a rough idea of what Admin would like things to look like?

Hulldom wrote:So should we take all of these listed in OP for 2023 as being ~mostly~ set in stone and ready to go or is this more a rough idea of what Admin would like things to look like?

Everything in the OP is going to happen, and should be on the dates they're listed at.

That’s amazing news! So I guess another question is, and sort of pursuant to Riemst’s post from up the thread, is there anything else that can be shared at this point regarding season 3? I know certain tidbits about it actually happening (there’s an image of Fris apparently confirming it in the cards server) have come up before, but I’m just curious if there’s anything else that can be shared on its timeline.