How to NationStates: The Comprehensive Guide (for noobs)

[His Excellency]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently making a guide called "How to NationStates: The Comprehensive Guide", and recently it has blown up with a sudden surge of upvotes.

You may know me already from my other factbook entries which I used to post in the past. But that was a long time ago, and nowadays I don't have much free time on my hands to make new factbook entries.

I've decided to make a comprehensive guide (in my style) on how to play NationStates. I still don't have as much free time as I used to, so I plan to add some entries every day until I cover an extensive list of everything NationStates from the basics to raiding to regional management.

Click here to check out my guide:
https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1023447

It would be great if I could get some feedback and suggestions for new articles and any criticisms will automatically enter you to a lottery for the chance to win a free helicopter ride!

KTHXBAI

[The Gipper]

Posting "REEEEE" is unacceptable on NationStates, as the mods have ruled that it is somehow linked to making fun of autistics. I'm just informing you, I don't have a clue what the link is and was surprised the first time I saw someone warned for it. You should edit this factbook accordingly.

[Queen Yuno]

Keep the Reee lmao
it's the sound an angry frog makes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM6EHcPFKCQ

I upvoted your dispatch ^w^
Hope your guide one day becomes as expansive as Amerion's https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=444406 but more casual-styled (which is better.. some newbs just don't read professional dispatches)

[Drop Your Pants]

Keep the Reee lmao
it's the sound an angry frog makes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM6EHcPFKCQ

It was originally but now it's not. Here's the 10 page talk in Moderation about it. And if you search for "reeee' on the forums you'll see a lot of red text following it.

[A m e n r i a]

Tbh polygamy is completely normal and not weird..if you can afford it.

[His Excellency]

Posting "REEEEE" is unacceptable on NationStates, as the mods have ruled that it is somehow linked to making fun of autistics. I'm just informing you, I don't have a clue what the link is and was surprised the first time I saw someone warned for it. You should edit this factbook accordingly.

Keep the Reee lmao
it's the sound an angry frog makes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM6EHcPFKCQ

It was originally but now it's not. Here's the 10 page talk in Moderation about it. And if you search for "reeee' on the forums you'll see a lot of red text following it.

Thank you for the heads up! As Queen Yuno already mentioned, it wasn't my intention in anyway to make fun of people with autism, so I've taken it down.

[His Excellency]

-snip-

I upvoted your dispatch ^w^
Hope your guide one day becomes as expansive as Amerion's https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=444406 but more casual-styled (which is better.. some newbs just don't read professional dispatches)

Thank you Queen Yuno ^.^

And yes, my guide was sort of inspired by Amerion's one. When I learnt how to play NationStates, I remember trawling through the copius amount of information presented in a somewhat dull and uninspiring way (sowwy lel). I didn't want people to go through the same experience I had, so I decided to go for a more lighter tone for a guide.

And yes, I do have intention to cover as much material as Amerion's manual.

[The Gipper]

it wasn't my intention in anyway to make fun of people with autism

Yeah, neither does anyone else that uses it. I don't know of anywhere other than here that links it to autism. That's why I try to give heads ups to people before a mod sees it because there is never any ill intent.

[The NewsStand]

Nice style - it looks great. I have a pet gripe though, and I'm afraid your getting it!

I don't like that the first thing you suggest is to block all recruitment telegrams. By the time a new player reads your factbook, their inbox will already be full. As recruitment telegrams are typically targeted only at new nations, the advice comes too late.

It also shoots yourself in the foot. How do you intend to recruit nations for your own region if you can't contact them by telegram?

The same advice is often given by the Pacifics. Being new, players follow this advice, and inadvertently cut themselves off from the opportunity to join UCRs. It may not be intentional, but it's a way of keeping nations in the Pacifics. With my second nation, I ignored this advice. Two weeks later, I was sent a manual recruitment telegram, and the region was perfect for me. This is an opportunity I would otherwise have missed.

Blocking telegrams is also a problem for those that manually recruit. Telegrams sent by stamp or API tell the sender if recruitment is blocked. I don't believe the same happens for manual recruitment, meaning the sender is unaware if it arrived or not. When you go to the effort of manually recruiting, you'd at least like to know that your message arrived.

Blocking recruitment telegrams also blocks "recruitment for an organisation" telegrams. This impacts my own NewsStand organisation, world fair type organisations, defender alliances and the like.

I feel that recommending changing the frequency of telegrams is fine, but blocking it cuts a nation off from future opportunities.

[His Excellency]

Nice style - it looks great. I have a pet gripe though, and I'm afraid your getting it!

I don't like that the first thing you suggest is to block all recruitment telegrams. By the time a new player reads your factbook, their inbox will already be full. As recruitment telegrams are typically targeted only at new nations, the advice comes too late.

It also shoots yourself in the foot. How do you intend to recruit nations for your own region if you can't contact them by telegram?

The same advice is often given by the Pacifics. Being new, players follow this advice, and inadvertently cut themselves off from the opportunity to join UCRs. It may not be intentional, but it's a way of keeping nations in the Pacifics. With my second nation, I ignored this advice. Two weeks later, I was sent a manual recruitment telegram, and the region was perfect for me. This is an opportunity I would otherwise have missed.

Blocking telegrams is also a problem for those that manually recruit. Telegrams sent by stamp or API tell the sender if recruitment is blocked. I don't believe the same happens for manual recruitment, meaning the sender is unaware if it arrived or not. When you go to the effort of manually recruiting, you'd at least like to know that your message arrived.

Blocking recruitment telegrams also blocks "recruitment for an organisation" telegrams. This impacts my own NewsStand organisation, world fair type organisations, defender alliances and the like.

I feel that recommending changing the frequency of telegrams is fine, but blocking it cuts a nation off from future opportunities.

Thank you for raising your concerns. I was planning on introducing regions when I get to multiplayer functions on my guide. The reason why my first advice is to tell people to block recruitment telegrams is because it can get extremely overwhelming as a new player. When I was new, I was extremely confused and I had 20 competing telegrams telling me to come here because the other regions suck. So I guess this is more personal experience.

[His Excellency]

Also ...



I received my very first hate mail! Yay!

[Malphe]

Also ...

(Image)

I received my very first hate mail! Yay!

Aww, no fair! I haven't got any yet.

[The NewsStand]

Also ...

(Image)

I received my very first hate mail! Yay!

Lol! You must be doing something right!

[Reploid Productions]

Also ...

(Image)

I received my very first hate mail! Yay!

Getting Help page is thataway. Hate mail might be a badge of honor, but that is still something the mods can deal with.

[The Noble Thatcherites]

For anyone looking for hate mail, I'd advise sending several thousand recruitment telegrams. Anything that comes up in the telegram box is bound to be, at the very least, juicy.

[Greater vakolicci haven]

For anyone looking for hate mail, I'd advise sending several thousand recruitment telegrams. Anything that comes up in the telegram box is bound to be, at the very least, juicy.

Try sending out thousands of recruitment messages that all end with a guarantee to answer any and all questions within the day.

[Greater vakolicci haven]

-snip-

I upvoted your dispatch ^w^
Hope your guide one day becomes as expansive as Amerion's https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=444406 but more casual-styled (which is better.. some newbs just don't read professional dispatches)

Thank you Queen Yuno ^.^

And yes, my guide was sort of inspired by Amerion's one. When I learnt how to play NationStates, I remember trawling through the copius amount of information presented in a somewhat dull and uninspiring way (sowwy lel). I didn't want people to go through the same experience I had, so I decided to go for a more lighter tone for a guide.

And yes, I do have intention to cover as much material as Amerion's manual.

Try going the other way and send messages to all new nations offering to tell them anything about ns, whether they want to move to your region or not. Heads up, they hold you to your offer and ask away

[Amerion]

Great guide!!! I've upvoted

[Areulder]

Blocking telegrams is also a problem for those that manually recruit. Telegrams sent by stamp or API tell the sender if recruitment is blocked. I don't believe the same happens for manual recruitment, meaning the sender is unaware if it arrived or not. When you go to the effort of manually recruiting, you'd at least like to know that your message arrived.

If use a telegram template you'll still get that feedback.

[Neop]

That's a very squiggly CR/PF/Economy graph. Good graph. Good guide. Upvoted.