Factbook Question/Answer Thread

[The Rainlands]

Hello! I'm new around here, and I know this is not the ideal place to post this question, but I'm not sure where else. There are lots of role players here! How do you get involved, if you're brand new?

[Maltropia]

Hello! I'm new around here, and I know this is not the ideal place to post this question, but I'm not sure where else. There are lots of role players here! How do you get involved, if you're brand new?

There are a few ways!

You might consider joining an open roleplay region like Greater Dienstad that advertises itself as being new player-friendly, with a community of helpful and experienced roleplayers who can get you on your feet. There are a great many roleplay regions with all sorts of membership application processes (some are closed, some want interviews and vetting, some just let you move in and raid the fridge), so you're free to shop around and find a community you enjoy. There are also non-region communities, which can be informal, out-of-character writing groups or in-character alliances. Those are all over the forums and can be a good way to get involved, because alliances have a purpose that can spur them to activity.

You can also just jump right into roleplaying by starting a roleplay thread yourself - following some sort of diplomatic or national crisis, or the classic 'diplomatic function to which everyone who wants is invited,' or maybe something a bit more out of the box. The sky is your limit. This can be a great way to meet roleplaying partners, but don't be disappointed if your roleplay fails to take off. Any narrative requires commitment, and there is a lot of competition. Sometimes it's better to gain experience somewhere else before you broach that barrel, so...

You might choose to join someone else's roleplay, which takes some of the pressure off you for driving the plot forward. Find one that says [OPEN] or something to that effect, give the first few posts a read and see if the premise interests you. Try to find a thread with fewer posts - something with 30 pages might have established a lot of background that could take a while to process, whereas a newer or shorter thread should have more opportunity for a new participant to insert himself comfortably.

Or, to take this train down a very different track, you might consider not roleplaying at all. Some players like to spend days, months and maybe even years just writing their factbooks and building up their nation's canon and background (e.g. on an offsite wiki like IIwiki) so that, when they do finally start roleplaying, they know exactly what their country looks like and what their people do.

That's just a few thoughts on getting involved. Hopefully one, or several of them, appeals to you and you're on your feet and writing soon. If you have any questions whatsoever about NationStates, the various forums and subforums, abbreviations, writing or anything else, feel more than free to send a telegram to me or any other member of the Mentor team.

Good luck!

[Prussiaholm]

Hi there.

Recently I was looking at some other countries factbooks to get some ideas for my own. One thing I found that really made some factbooks great was a simplistic map of the country. My favourite kind of map I saw was similar to one you might find on Wikipedia when looking at a nation's Wikipedia page. So any idea how I could make a map like that?

Any help is appreciated.

[New Emeline]

http://rollforfantasy.com/tools/map-creator.php
This help?

[Maltropia]

Hi there.

Recently I was looking at some other countries factbooks to get some ideas for my own. One thing I found that really made some factbooks great was a simplistic map of the country. My favourite kind of map I saw was similar to one you might find on Wikipedia when looking at a nation's Wikipedia page. So any idea how I could make a map like that?

Any help is appreciated.

I have a Wikipedia-style map of Maltropia which I made myself. It's not particularly complicated, so I'll give you a step-by-step.

I use Paint.net, which is a freely available raster image editor like Microsoft Paint.

• Assuming you haven't a national map yet, and aren't in a region that has assigned you a map spot, draw one! Break out the Pencil tool and doodle a shape. Add bits. Sprinkle islands around if you'd like some.
• Disable Antialiasing. You don't want blurry edges for this kind of map.
• Go to 100% zoom. Does your country still look big? Your map might want to be several hundred pixels across.
• Keep tweaking that landmass. Use the Fill tool to see what it actually looks like. Don't be afraid to hit Undo or use the Eraser.
• Seriously, keep editing. Zoom way in and make your coast look 'natural.' Consider the size of your country: is that 'small bay' two miles or two hundred?
• When it's done, colour it green using the Fill tool. I believe the hex code Wikipedia's orthographic maps use is #218439.
• Save it as a .png so that the background is transparent and the image stays unblurred.

If you're an island country with no neighbours, this should be fine, but most countries aren't so isolated. Maybe you're in a region after all, or maybe you want to surround yourself with puppet/NPC nations. Let's keep going.

• If you're on a map that already has other nations, make sure they're the right size relative to you. I'll assume they are, because it's easier.
• Colour them all differently again. I know, Wikipedia doesn't do that, but bear with me.
• Break out the white Pencil (or any colour that you haven't used) and draw a line around each country. It should be exactly one pixel wide and be entirely continuous; never wider, and never broken. This is the slow part. To check that you've done it right, use the Fill tool in another colour - if it all fills in, you're probably good - and then Undo.

or (if you have a plugin called Outline Object or some such; Paint.net doesn't come with this by default)

• Use a Selection tool (holding Shift and using the Wand Selection tool is the easiest way in Paint.net) to select your entire country. Copy it.
• Create a New Layer within the image (not a new image!) and paste your country onto that. Make sure it's in the right spot.
• Use Outline Object to create a one pixel-wide border with maximum hardness (again, to prevent blur) in a different colour.
• Follow the above three steps for each other country that borders you.
• Colour each other country grey (Wikipedia seems to use #C0C0C5).
• Merge all your layers down again into one.
  
• Use the Wand Selection tool to select all your borders. One click should get them all, if you did it right.
• Delete the borders.
• Delete any background colour. The only colours on your screen should be green and grey.

That's it! Those steps should be more than enough to give you a quality orthographic map.

Now, there are other kinds of map on Wikipedia, and I realise I made an assumption as to which you meant. Other kinds of map are a bit more complicated but not actually hard to make, once you know your tools. It's only ever a matter of patience. If you've questions, feel free to ask! We're here to help.

[Prussiaholm]

Hi there.

Recently I was looking at some other countries factbooks to get some ideas for my own. One thing I found that really made some factbooks great was a simplistic map of the country. My favourite kind of map I saw was similar to one you might find on Wikipedia when looking at a nation's Wikipedia page. So any idea how I could make a map like that?

Any help is appreciated.

I have a Wikipedia-style map of Maltropia which I made myself. It's not particularly complicated, so I'll give you a step-by-step.

I use Paint.net, which is a freely available raster image editor like Microsoft Paint.

• Assuming you haven't a national map yet, and aren't in a region that has assigned you a map spot, draw one! Break out the Pencil tool and doodle a shape. Add bits. Sprinkle islands around if you'd like some.
• Disable Antialiasing. You don't want blurry edges for this kind of map.
• Go to 100% zoom. Does your country still look big? Your map might want to be several hundred pixels across.
• Keep tweaking that landmass. Use the Fill tool to see what it actually looks like. Don't be afraid to hit Undo or use the Eraser.
• Seriously, keep editing. Zoom way in and make your coast look 'natural.' Consider the size of your country: is that 'small bay' two miles or two hundred?
• When it's done, colour it green using the Fill tool. I believe the hex code Wikipedia's orthographic maps use is #218439.
• Save it as a .png so that the background is transparent and the image stays unblurred.

If you're an island country with no neighbours, this should be fine, but most countries aren't so isolated. Maybe you're in a region after all, or maybe you want to surround yourself with puppet/NPC nations. Let's keep going.

• If you're on a map that already has other nations, make sure they're the right size relative to you. I'll assume they are, because it's easier.
• Colour them all differently again. I know, Wikipedia doesn't do that, but bear with me.
• Break out the white Pencil (or any colour that you haven't used) and draw a line around each country. It should be exactly one pixel wide and be entirely continuous; never wider, and never broken. This is the slow part. To check that you've done it right, use the Fill tool in another colour - if it all fills in, you're probably good - and then Undo.

or (if you have a plugin called Outline Object or some such; Paint.net doesn't come with this by default)

• Use a Selection tool (holding Shift and using the Wand Selection tool is the easiest way in Paint.net) to select your entire country. Copy it.
• Create a New Layer within the image (not a new image!) and paste your country onto that. Make sure it's in the right spot.
• Use Outline Object to create a one pixel-wide border with maximum hardness (again, to prevent blur) in a different colour.
• Follow the above three steps for each other country that borders you.
• Colour each other country grey (Wikipedia seems to use #C0C0C5).
• Merge all your layers down again into one.
  
• Use the Wand Selection tool to select all your borders. One click should get them all, if you did it right.
• Delete the borders.
• Delete any background colour. The only colours on your screen should be green and grey.

That's it! Those steps should be more than enough to give you a quality orthographic map.

Now, there are other kinds of map on Wikipedia, and I realise I made an assumption as to which you meant. Other kinds of map are a bit more complicated but not actually hard to make, once you know your tools. It's only ever a matter of patience. If you've questions, feel free to ask! We're here to help.

Hey there. Thanks a bunch for your help. Any advice for a Europe map? My country is a northen German-Scandanavian country and I'm having trouble figuring out how to make a nice looking map.

[Maltropia]

Hey there. Thanks a bunch for your help. Any advice for a Europe map? My country is a northen German-Scandanavian country and I'm having trouble figuring out how to make a nice looking map.

If you're basing it in/on a real-world location, the easiest thing to do might be to take a map directly from Wikipedia (or elsewhere on the internet) and edit the borders to suit. There are also blank (borderless) maps available and maps which show numerous 'provinces' or other territorial divisions (e.g. province maps from Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis) which you can use to shape your country. As for "figuring out how to make a nice-looking map" - just practise, redraw and redraft.

[Northwest Kalactin]

Can I get a video game cover with these 4 pictures on them

https://i.imgur.com/UKaEBrk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YNGatbc_d.jpg?maxwi ... ity=medium

https://www.nationstates.net/images/fla ... 285880.png

https://www.nationstates.net/images/fla ... 820839.jpg

And can you write “WORLD CUP 80” on it

[Northwest Kalactin]

Bump

[Maltropia]

There's no need to bump a sticky within six hours of your post. This thread isn't going anywhere. This isn't really an appropriate place to be asking for graphic design work, though, nor is a "video game cover" something I'd call a "Logo request."

[Avernian Republic]

Hey, I was just wondering how people added things like maps, emblems, etc into their factbooks?

And how do they make those really nice Wikipedia-looking maps that are kind of on a globe?

[Maltropia]

Hey, I was just wondering how people added things like maps, emblems, etc into their factbooks?

And how do they make those really nice Wikipedia-looking maps that are kind of on a globe?

Just a bit further up this page I have a step-by-step guide explaining the map-making. Do feel free to ask if you've more questions on that. As regards actually adding images, assuming a) they already exist and b) you have no prior knowledge:

1. Have the image on your hard drive, if it isn't already on a dedicated image host (not a private website!).
2. Make sure the image is the right size (for a sidebar, probably no wider than 280 pixels). You can resize images quite straightforwardly in most image editors.
3. Upload the image to a dedicated image host (e.g. imgur).
4. Get the image URL, which will normally end in .png or .jpg (e.g. https://i.imgur.com/Nr73OMU.png).
5. Stick the image in the appropriate BBCode (which would look like [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/Nr73OMU.png[/IMG]).
6. Make use of other BBCode (e.g. [FLOATRIGHT][/FLOATRIGHT] or [ALIGN=CENTER][/ALIGN]) to situate the image appropriately. [edit: it's just [CENTER][/CENTER] gameside, pardon!]
7. Press the Preview button to make sure it looks okay and, if it does,
8. Submit! unless you're not done, obviously, in which case keep going until your factbook's ready.

Getting the right images can be tricky. Sometimes it's just a quick search of Google Images or a deeper trawl of Wikimedia Commons, but for flags and coats of arms the best bet is usually your own work. Try a good image editor (I personally swear by Paint.net, but vector editors such as GIMP and Inkscape are good too). Try making use of image elements from Google Images, stock photo websites and Wikimedia Commons (Category:SVG coat of arms elements is miraculous) to compose a unique emblem, or draw it yourself if you think you've the aptitude. The sky's your limit.

[Ko-oren]

Is there a thread for critiquing coats of arms and other national symbols?

[Pilazzio]

I want to write about history of my nation but I don't want to go into details because it will get boring and also lose its satirical feel.

[The State of Monavia]

Is there a thread for critiquing coats of arms and other national symbols?

There are threads for posting designs and threads for asking others to make them, but no art thread specifically dedicated to sharing critiques. You might find something in the Arts & Fiction subforum.

[Maltropia]

Is there a thread for critiquing coats of arms and other national symbols?

It hasn't been posted in in a while, but there is a Flag Advice thread in the Gameplay forum. Plenty of people frequent that one so you ought to get at least some feedback on flags.

I want to write about history of my nation but I don't want to go into details because it will get boring and also lose its satirical feel.

If you're worried about running out of funny ideas, or just having the novelty wear off as you write, slow down. Paint the history in broad stokes so you have a rough timeline and then fill in little bits at a time. Consider taking cues from actual history and then seeing what could have gone wrong when you write your own. I have one nation whose history is basically a long series of miscommunications and misunderstandings arising from otherwise normal events.

It can be hard to sustain motivation and it can be hard to maintain a standard. Things aren't all equally fun to write; I know I have plenty of gaps in this particular factbook, for example. Don't force anything. Inspiration'll come when it comes; in the meantime, consider reading real history, fiction and parodies of history (e.g. the great book 1066 and All That) to get the gears whirring.

[New Edge Mustangs]

Good help here! I'm also fairly new.

[Blood Faction]

Shipoopii,Mediocrely cool cats,Wordans,Adney Robartz,Trutles,Scloosh,Grow Up,East Western China,Fetis World,Deathly Deathful Death and me are part of this map nation roleplay thing and helpful tips for a role play like this?Also how do i put in pictures?

[Kiosanda]

It's pretty long, but not long enough. One more section needs to be added, I think, and that's the military section. Now, I'm a mainly an agricultural based country, without weapons of mass destruction and the such. I'd assume our army, navy, airforce, and what have you, would resemble such. With that said, does anyone have any tips on what I could do for my military section, basing it off of a Wikipedia-styled article?

I'll be honest, I know very little about military affairs and the such, so I'm not sure what exactly a military section would entail, but as a part of my plan of having an all-encompassing Factbook, I believe it to be necessary to add one in.

[Berdan]

What's the purpose of your military? What would a lost war cost you? A lot of people use Israel for reference, but Israel only supports their army because they are surrounded on three sides and cant afford to lose a single defensive war. The United States is pretty solidly isolated from everyone else on their own continent which they control a resource-rich third of, with the other two thirds going to close allies, so the United States can support its massive force that it uses in external conflicts. A political and practical luxury the country can afford due to sheer amounts of resources.
Then you have Ireland, which is a small, safe country with no real enemies, so a portion of the national police have received military training and can be equipped with military-grade hardware.

[Kiosanda]

What's the purpose of your military? What would a lost war cost you? A lot of people use Israel for reference, but Israel only supports their army because they are surrounded on three sides and cant afford to lose a single defensive war. The United States is pretty solidly isolated from everyone else on their own continent which they control a resource-rich third of, with the other two thirds going to close allies, so the United States can support its massive force that it uses in external conflicts. A political and practical luxury the country can afford due to sheer amounts of resources.
Then you have Ireland, which is a small, safe country with no real enemies, so a portion of the national police have received military training and can be equipped with military-grade hardware.

The purpose of our military would be to defend our peoples from imperialism and colonialism. It's not an aggressive military like the militaries of the United States and Israel, and so forth, but a peaceful one dedicated to making sure our nation is not invaded, occupied, or swallowed up by bigger powers that dare attempt to put us down. We may develop enemies in the future... we stand out in the world, so we are in the watch of the big powers.

I'd also say that our military would be representative of the will of our dignified and honorable workers and peasants. The military's class nature would be orientated with the firm revolutionary stand of the people. The army would be loyal to the people, thus it'd have a high sense of responsibility. We do not want a big annexationist army, that goes off to destroy whole nations and swallow up whole territories, instead, our army's line of fighting would be in conformity with all peace-loving people. We'd defend our nation as a priority. We'd help other nations also, innocent ones in threat of aggression, invasion, and so forth, thus, all peace-loving nations are our allies.

[Kenmoria]

I would check previous factbooks, Ponderosa has a list in his guide of people who have good ones. Also, try searching through highly rated factbooks in the military section, and basing your ideas off the ones contained there.

[Panjiang]

Depending on how much you want to be a prisoner to history, many of the socialist and communist governments of the past kept around relatively large standing militaries in order to maintain their grip on power and enforce their policies. North Korea and China have two of the largest standing armies in the world. Vietnam also has a pretty large standing army. In fact, judging by this list, Vietnam and North Korea have very large reserve forces as well. Also keep in mind that most governments do not spend more than 5% of their GDP on the military.

Since you are asking about a navy, I'm going to assume you have a substantive coast line that actually needs to be defended. Within military studies there are commonly considered to be three different types/aspects of a navy: blue-water, green-water, and brown-water. In the simplest terms, these are measures of the potential of a country's navy to project force. Blue-water navies are capable of projecting a substantial number of ships anywhere in the world for whatever reason ranging from troop transportation to responding to natural disasters in foreign countries. Right now there are really only three true blue-water navies: the United States and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom and France.

A green-water navy is, according to Wikipedia, "that is designed to operate in its nation's littoral zones and has the competency to operate in the open oceans of its surrounding region." Examples include Australia, Italy and Japan. Admittedly, I'm also not an expert, but it seems to me that green-water navies, like blue-water navies, are designed to operate effectively and efficiently beyond the coastal waters of their respective countries should the need arise. Unlike blue-water navies, though, they are not supposed to operate in the open ocean and in faraway lands for extended periods of time by themselves.

Brown-water navies are the least capable when it comes to force-projection. Brown-water navies, for the most part, are designed to operate right off of a nation's coast and in their internal waterways like rivers, lakes, etc.

A quick note: in your factbook you said that the communist rebels, at their peak, numbered around ten million. Depending on how realistic you want things to be, this number is rather absurd. Now, I don't know your country's population, but even Mao's rebels numbered under five million in 1949.

Other notes:

• Most countries do not operate the most advanced weapons, planes, and ships. A lot of navies are still operating thirty+ year old ships that were either sold to them by the United States, Western European countries, the Soviet Union, or Russia or sold to them by other countries that bought them from said countries.
• Global Firepower, I think, has a lot of useful information about national militaries you can use to better design your own military.
• Similarly, Military Factory has a lot of information about weapons ranging from pistols to aircraft carriers to stealth bombers.

If you have any other questions, just ask away.

[Kiosanda]

Depending on how much you want to be a prisoner to history, many of the socialist and communist governments of the past kept around relatively large standing militaries in order to maintain their grip on power and enforce their policies. North Korea and China have two of the largest standing armies in the world. Vietnam also has a pretty large standing army. In fact, judging by this list, Vietnam and North Korea have very large reserve forces as well. Also keep in mind that most governments do not spend more than 5% of their GDP on the military.

A quick note: in your factbook you said that the communist rebels, at their peak, numbered around ten million. Depending on how realistic you want things to be, this number is rather absurd. Now, I don't know your country's population, but even Mao's rebels numbered under five million in 1949.

First off, if I may, I'd like to point out that the militaries of socialist governments of the past, such as the DPRK & China—negating my personal thoughts on the DPRK and their less-than-actually-socialist economy—had their military for the sole purpose of the defense of the people, not for "maintaining their grip on power", maybe for maintaining the power of the people, but nothing outrageous. I'd also like to make a comment on the note you had. My memory is bad, but I don't recall saying ten-million, if I did, I may change it, thank you. But, the population of China at the time I believe was under 600,000,000, my population is above and beyond 2,000,000,000, the last time I checked, so ten-million wouldn't be entirely unrealistic considering the revolutionaries Mao guided were, according to you, just under five million, with a population of that size.

So, nonetheless, the information you provided has been useful, I will definitely take it all in when writing up the section for the navy. I'll assure the overall budget for my military will only be 1-3% of the GDP.

I do have a question though. In a primarily peasant-based country such as mine, how exactly would that change the dynamics of military branches, like the navy? Our ships would be of low quality, too our weaponry, even with our wealth, I assume. What would we be reduced to using? What would our tactics be reduced to if at war?

[Kractero]

You should convert to wiki-style, would make it easier to read.