Embassy of The North Pacific

[Great Algerstonia]

Oh oh look out, Syl is calling you toxic. Run away!!!!!

what even is the point in this comment? i'm legitimately asking you, DYP.

Be the change you wish to see

hmm?

Was referring to Bormiar’s segment on the article

[Sanjurika]

The North Pacific and The South Pacific recently announced a joint festival! Full of fun and games, A Drop in the Ocean 2 comes four years after the original Drop in the Ocean. Coordinated by Minister of Culture Syrixia and Minister of Regional Affairs Seraph (Erinor). Now, they’re back and with the same goal: to celebrate strong TNP/TSP relations and all the things that make GCRs great! A lot has happened during this time, but with TNP/TSP relations still going strong, A Drop in the Ocean 2 is sure to be a lot of fun!

A Drop in the Ocean 2 will have what every NS festival requires: games, competitions, lectures, releplaying and much more. Since TSP hosted last time, we’ve made a subforum on the TNP forums for all the necessary celebrations. We also have our own Discord server just for this event. We’re super excited to kick this off, and anyone who so desires is welcome to take a look.

Links:
FESTIVAL SUBFORUM: https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/forum/5002545/
DISCORD SERVER: https://discord.gg/tsGD2Vv

[Morover]

The World Assembly Symposium 2020

I'm very excited to announce that The North Pacific has just begun the second annual World Assembly Symposium, where the greatest minds of the World Assembly come together to discuss matters concerning the organization. In this second event, things will work a little different from the first. At the beginning of the event, a subforum will open on The North Pacific Forums, where long-answer responses can be made to the various topics. Then, at the designated times below, more conversational responses and live discussion will occur on the World Symposium Discord on each of the topics.

Additionally, there will be several essays done by prominent members of the World Assembly community on different topics, which will be posted throughout the event.

Schedule
*all times are in Eastern Time

Friday, August 28:

9AM - Subforum becomes public and long-answer responses can begin being posted.
1PM-4PM - Liberations: When and how should they be used?

• Offensive liberations: Legitimate tactic or misuse of mechanics?
• How much drafting should a liberation undergo before it becomes ineffective?

5PM-8PM - Manipulating voting trends through politics.

• Blocs and their place within the World Assembly
• The lemming effect and how it's used
• Informational Dispatches and their effect on the voter psyche

Saturday, August 29:

9AM-12PM - Repeals: Why they should be written and what should be included.

• Differences between repeals in the GA and SC, and what this means.
• What constitutes the grounds for a proper repeal?
• How to make a repeal convincing and how to properly convey your argument.

1PM-4PM - Commendations, Condemnations, and Recent Shifts in Oft-Recognized Areas.

• Who is deserving of being recognized by the World Assembly?
• Recent shifts in those being recognized (such as c/cs relating to Cards) have been rising in prominence - is this a good or bad change?
• How much should OOC factors play into mostly IC recognitions?

5PM-8PM - Noncompliance - dangerous trend, legitimate roleplay, or godmodding?

• How should non-compliance be handled within the World Assembly?
• Is there a legitimate way to be non-compliant or is compliance put into place instantly and by force?
• How do 'non-compliance pacts' effect gameplay within the World Assembly?

Sunday, August 30:

9AM-12PM - Approval raiding - Curating proposals or interfering with democracy?

• Is delegate-bumping (or any other raiding tactics) okay under any circumstances in order to influence delegate approval?
• When should it be utilized, if it is?

1PM - 4PM - Trends, History, and the Future of the World Assembly

• How has the World Assembly changed recently, and are those changes good?
• Is the exchange of authors between the GA and SC good for increasing activity?
• What are some predictions for the future of the World Assembly?

5PM - 8PM - NBS Show

• Q&A with some of the bigger names within the World Assembly.
• Commentary on the discussions that happened over the course of the event.
• Closing remarks.

[The New California Republic]

(Image)
The World Assembly Symposium 2020

I'm very excited to announce that The North Pacific has just begun the second annual World Assembly Symposium, where the greatest minds of the World Assembly come together to discuss matters concerning the organization. In this second event, things will work a little different from the first. At the beginning of the event, a subforum will open on The North Pacific Forums, where long-answer responses can be made to the various topics. Then, at the designated times below, more conversational responses and live discussion will occur on the World Symposium Discord on each of the topics.

Additionally, there will be several essays done by prominent members of the World Assembly community on different topics, which will be posted throughout the event.

Schedule
*all times are in Eastern Time

Friday, August 28:

9AM - Subforum becomes public and long-answer responses can begin being posted.
1PM-4PM - Liberations: When and how should they be used?

• Offensive liberations: Legitimate tactic or misuse of mechanics?
• How much drafting should a liberation undergo before it becomes ineffective?

5PM-8PM - Manipulating voting trends through politics.

• Blocs and their place within the World Assembly
• The lemming effect and how it's used
• Informational Dispatches and their effect on the voter psyche

Saturday, August 29:

9AM-12PM - Repeals: Why they should be written and what should be included.

• Differences between repeals in the GA and SC, and what this means.
• What constitutes the grounds for a proper repeal?
• How to make a repeal convincing and how to properly convey your argument.

1PM-4PM - Commendations, Condemnations, and Recent Shifts in Oft-Recognized Areas.

• Who is deserving of being recognized by the World Assembly?
• Recent shifts in those being recognized (such as c/cs relating to Cards) have been rising in prominence - is this a good or bad change?
• How much should OOC factors play into mostly IC recognitions?

5PM-8PM - Noncompliance - dangerous trend, legitimate roleplay, or godmodding?

• How should non-compliance be handled within the World Assembly?
• Is there a legitimate way to be non-compliant or is compliance put into place instantly and by force?
• How do 'non-compliance pacts' effect gameplay within the World Assembly?

Sunday, August 30:

9AM-12PM - Approval raiding - Curating proposals or interfering with democracy?

• Is delegate-bumping (or any other raiding tactics) okay under any circumstances in order to influence delegate approval?
• When should it be utilized, if it is?

1PM - 4PM - Trends, History, and the Future of the World Assembly

• How has the World Assembly changed recently, and are those changes good?
• Is the exchange of authors between the GA and SC good for increasing activity?
• What are some predictions for the future of the World Assembly?

5PM - 8PM - NBS Show

• Q&A with some of the bigger names within the World Assembly.
• Commentary on the discussions that happened over the course of the event.
• Closing remarks.

Looks like an interesting schedule. I'll have a look to see if I can attend any of these.

[Tinhampton]

Somewhat belated, but the Symposium was thoroughly enjoyable.

On a similar theme, I note that TNP's WA vote recommendations are now formally split into an "Overview" and a "Recommendation" section: compare MoWAA's recommendations on International Bankruptcy Protocol and Condemn LKE with those made on Repeal GA#472 and Condemn Raionitu, for instance. Yet another great(ish) North Pacifican innovation?

[Aumeltopia]

Somewhat belated, but the Symposium was thoroughly enjoyable.

On a similar theme, I note that TNP's WA vote recommendations are now formally split into an "Overview" and a "Recommendation" section: compare MoWAA's recommendations on International Bankruptcy Protocol and Condemn LKE with those made on Repeal GA#472 and Condemn Raionitu, for instance. Yet another great(ish) North Pacifican innovation?

Innovation? More like copied from TSP's separate Purpose and Analysis sections. Maybe TNP will "innovate" a section dedicated to supplementary opinions next! (jk, we're happy to share).

[Cretox State]

Somewhat belated, but the Symposium was thoroughly enjoyable.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! We'll definitely be applying lessons learned from this Symposium to future events. We've collated the four guest essays from the event into an issue of The Northern Lights, one of our regional publications. We're working to increase the frequency of these publications, and you can expect more in that regard in the future.

On a similar theme, I note that TNP's WA vote recommendations are now formally split into an "Overview" and a "Recommendation" section: compare MoWAA's recommendations on International Bankruptcy Protocol and Condemn LKE with those made on Repeal GA#472 and Condemn Raionitu, for instance. Yet another great(ish) North Pacifican innovation?

I wouldn't call that an "innovation" per se. It's just something we're trying out for the time being. The idea here is to give additional structure to our voting recommendations and give our writers an intuitive framework to operate in. One of our WA Ministry's greatest assets is our large and enthusiastic pool of talented staffers. With this large pool comes substantial diversity in writing styles. Having to write an IFV from scratch can be daunting, especially for newer staffers, and it's all too easy to fall into the trap of simply regurgitating what a proposal says and adding which direction to vote to the end. Hopefully this format can make the writing process more clear and less overwhelming.

Innovation? More like copied from TSP's separate Purpose and Analysis sections. Maybe TNP will "innovate" a section dedicated to supplementary opinions next! (jk, we're happy to share).

Hardly. This idea had nothing to do with TSP's OWL recommendation formatting. In fact, a brief look at TSP's recommendations and the two latest TNP ones should plainly show that TSP's "purpose" and our "overview" sections are substantially different. Sure, you could say that the "recommendation" and "analysis" sections accomplish pretty much the same thing. But isn't the entire purpose of these recommendations to... recommend voting a certain way?

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

Happy to exit my coffin (at night, of course) to submit for TNL. An interesting issue. Liked the concept.

I'm tempted to critique the other articles a bit but...energy?

[Cretox State]

Happy to exit my coffin (at night, of course) to submit for TNL. An interesting issue. Liked the concept.

I'm tempted to critique the other articles a bit but...energy?

Glad it was interesting, and thank you for your piece!

For those unaware, we’ve just published Issue XXXIII of The Northern Lights, which was focused on military gameplay. We’ve also released two new issues of The North Star, our other regional publication:

• Issue XXI, a special edition summarizing the second WA Symposium (and the first image-based TNS).
• Issue XXII, our monthly report for October.

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

Do you not actually post the articles in Gameplay anymore? And/or is Gameplay just so dead that even a special milGP centric edition gets no comments?

[LollerLand]

Really enjoyed reading this issue! Especially found the articles written by Falc and Chingis to be interesting.

[DavanteAdams]

Recently I am trying to get my S3 Card to be a Rare, but I need some more 1% badges. Thus me going for the Endorsements badge I am now setting up a card system where you can earn some FREE CARDS!!!
INSTRUCTIONS
-----------------
1. Join The North Pacific (If you haven't already)

2. Endorse DavanteAdams

3. TG DavanteAdams and tell me that you endorsed me and would like to be in the giveaway.

How It Works
----------------
I will use a random generator to match a nation with a card. This will happen 3 times per person that joins, so you will end up getting three cards. I will do this once every 2 weeks, so make sure you get me Endorsed!!!

Prizes
-------
What kind of cards will be in the giveaway? You ask.
There will be...
1 legendary
5 epics
10 ultra rares
15 rares
25 uncommon.
30 common.
So there is a MAX prize of a LEGENDARY involved. And all you have to do is Click ONE BUTTON and TELEGRAM me.
Hope you guys have fun and good luck.
There will only be 20! people that receive cards before I close it so make sure you ENDORSE!!!

[Cretox State]

Recently I am trying to get my S3 Card to be a Rare, but I need some more 1% badges. Thus me going for the Endorsements badge I am now setting up a card system where you can earn some FREE CARDS!!!

Just wanted to clarify that the above is a personal project that is not officially supported by TNP or its government in any way, shape, or form.

If one seeks to increase their endorsement count in The North Pacific, there are several officially sponsored programs and tools that exist for that specific purpose, including the region’s World Assembly Development Program- which offers far more expansive card rewards- and the regional endorsement tool.

In other news, our Delegate’s midterm address is out, with the Ministries themselves following suit. We’ve also updated our World Factbook Entry with a new color scheme and the most recent new developments.

[6ixDaze]

Really enjoyed reading this issue! Especially found the articles written by Falc and Chingis to be interesting.

Thanks! Glad you found it interesting.

[Sanjurika]

The Spotlight - Interview with BMWSurfer

by Comfed, Deputy Speaker

Comfed: Okay. First question: How did you start off in TNP?

BMWSurfer: Well I joined NationStates in early 2017, and founded in The South Pacific. After some region shopping, I decided the best way to learn about the game was to join the biggest region. I originally planned to only stay a few months then go make a name for myself in a UCR, but I loved it so much here that I ended up staying.

Comfed: I'm sure lots of people would be familiar with that story. You're currently a Colonel in the NPA, how did you get started in there?

BMWSurfer: Well, I read through all of my options in TNP government when I first joined, and military gameplay looked interesting to me. I wasn't sure at first if I really wanted to commit to being there during updates, so I joined the Auxiliary which at the time was essentially our piling service. I became close friends with the soldiers and officers, and over the next 9 months climbed my way up the ranks to Lieutenant (the first officer rank). I loved the culture of the NPA and the friendships I made there, so I stayed there and have been in the NPA through my entire NS career.

Comfed: That's great! What was your first position in the government and who gave it to you?

BMWSurfer: While I'm more well known in TNP for my role in Home Affairs, my first passion in NS was the World Assembly. My first leadership role was as a Deputy Minister of World Assembly Affairs, and I served under Deropia and alongside TlomzKrano, who is now Delegate.

Comfed: Very interesting. Could you go into a little more detail abut your role in TNP Home Affairs?

BMWSurfer: I served for a year as Minister of Home Affairs, for two terms under Siwale, and for one term under Pallaith. I also served this year as a deputy and advisor to current HA Minister Nimarya, where I created a system of recordkeeping for HA.
When I first joined TNP, I would've never believed I would become a Minister, especially in Home Affairs. However, over the years I've grown to love HA, and welcoming people into our great region.

Comfed: Home Affairs certainly is an overlooked but essential part of TNP. What was your favorite moment in TNP?

BMWSurfer: I took a break from NS for about a year, from the end of my last HA term until April of this year. When I refounded my nation, it was mere seconds before people here in TNP noticed. I hadn't even rejoined our Discord servers before I was pinged by people welcoming me back. Moments like that make everything worth it .

Comfed: That's sweet. What’s your favorite thing about TNP?

BMWSurfer: I definitely think the community here is my favorite thing. If it weren't for the welcoming of the people here I probably wouldn't still be here

Comfed: If you could only pick one ministry to work in, which one would it be?

BMWSurfer: I would pick World Assembly Affairs. It has a little bit of everything, keeping new TNPers engaged, inter-regional cooperation, and plenty of stuff to do all the time. Although, both Home Affairs and Communications are very close seconds.

Comfed: Awesome! That's all the questions I have for now, thanks for being interviewed!

BMWSurfer: Thank you for interviewing me!

RA Highlights

by BMWSurfer, Minister of Communications

November was a relatively peaceful month for the Regional Assembly, a reprieve from the busyness of October and a clear transition into the holidays. There were four motions brought before the chamber this month, of which two were appointee confirmations and two were related to citizenship applications.

In October, Delegate TlomzKrano re-appointed Siwale to the Election Commission for another 6 month term pending a vote of the RA to confirm the appointment. Debate was short, and consensus in support of the confirmation was clear from the beginning. Siwale has served on the EC for its entire modern history, and is a well known and very trusted member of the TNP community. Voting on the confirmation ended at the very beginning of this month, with 47 in favor, 1 against, and 4 abstentions.

In a similarly non-controversial move, Lady Raven Wing was appointed as prosecutor in the court case The North Pacific vs. St. George. The court case involves speaker St. George (also known as MadJack) refusing to process a citizenship application, and is still ongoing. The confirmation of Lady Raven Wing also had broad consensus, and the confirmation was passed with 31 in favor, 2 against, and 15 abstentions.

In addition to these, two residents who applied for citizenship, Funkadelia and Aleister, were denied citizenship by Vice Delegate Dreadton. When this happens, according to the legal code, the RA votes to uphold the rejection of citizenship. Both rejections were upheld.

In addition to these motions which went to vote, Cretox State applied to join the Security Council and was accepted pending a confirmation by the RA. The confirmation is still in debate, where much of the discussion revolves around balancing the needs of activity and seniority within the SC. We look forward to seeing how this debate unfolds in the coming month.

News - Z-Day

by Arichia, Deputy Minister of Communications

Hello fellow survivor. I see that you’ve also survived the recent zombie apocalypse. Oh. So you survived it by hiding under your bed, hoping you won’t get the virus? And I suppose you’ll want the whole story to it, huh? Well then, here’s what happened during the 24 hours where brain-sucking zombies, infected by a virus invaded the world.

Before the actual disaster, TNP posted a regional poll to decide what TNP should do when the zombies strike the world. We chose to cure the zombies, rather than exterminating them or embracing them and sending them to infect other nations. (and also for nations to do whatever they want).

The zombies came on October 30th, and The Office of The Surgeon General released a public service announcement and instruction for curing other nations. Unfortunately, the game admins decided to stop curing research on all nations, meaning that nations had to begin researching a cure again. People were advised to join the regional discord and mask themselves to access the channels to coordinate with each other.

On the same day, Max Barry reassured the NS community that everything will be fine. All cure manufacturing ended all around the world. He said that “The real problem I want to discuss, though, is how some regions have closed their borders, and nations have redirected their resources into researching a "cure," or even exterminating zombie hordes with military force. I can't emphasize enough that this is a complete over-reaction. It is, in fact, this kind of needless fear that stokes division and prevents us from returning quickly to a regular lifestyle.”

The zombies kept coming and TNP saw a steady increase of zombies and decided to close its borders. Fortunately, the cures were being developed, and people began to send missiles to other nations, which drove down the number of zombies. Lists were created to show nations where to send their cures to make them do the most. Some people still decided to exterminate, and nations with zombies to exterminate were posted in a discord channel. Others decided to embrace the zombies, and sent hordes to other nations, infecting them. These nations were then kicked out of the region, preventing them from infecting others.

These border measures ended, and Max Barry created a news post declaring it. ”You can reimpose them if you really must. But why would you? Stop cowering in fear and embrace life again! “Get out and stretch your legs! Use your brains! Yes, especially those. Your soFt, deliciOus braiNs. Get tHem outsIde. Where wE cAn rEach them” he also said, creating some suspicion of him being infected. This was later confirmed when he announced that he was just struck by a cure missile, and to ignore his previous comments regarding the apocalypse.

The apocalypse ended soon after, and even after, through those combined efforts, TNP managed to decrease zombie numbers, and came out with the region with the most survivors. 23.7 trillion! While the rest of the world wasn’t so lucky, having 55.1% dead, TNP was mostly spared.

I guess you could say that Z-Day this year was a blast! For those who didn’t join us this year, make sure you join next year! Whether you’re curing your fellow region mates, shooting down zombies, or shipping them out to your rival’s nation, Z-Day is surely a fun day for all! (Except for the zombies being shot down, of course.)

NPA Bulletin

by Westinor, Deputy Minister of World Assembly Affairs

Promotions
[PFC] Arichia -> Corporal
[PVT] Westinor -> Private First Class

The NPA has been very busy prepping for the holiday season, starting off the month of November with a visit to everyone’s favorite admin friends over at Testregionia! They looked around for Testlandia, but couldn’t seem to find them anywhere… hoping to leave a little surprise and feeling a bit naughty, a tag was left behind for them to enjoy!

However, the rest of Nationstates was not to be forgotten. NPA Officer COL BMWSurfer, as well as Minister and Deputy Minister of Defense COL Gorundu and GEN 9003 led several tag and detag runs throughout the month, whipping new recruits into shape and singing awfully premature yuletide carols along the way. Featured Region of the Day Mikov Call was also hit on minor update of November 15th, led by GEN Gladio on the trigger.

During one of these tag runs the North Pacific Army also unseated several delegates in approval of the proposal “Repeal: ‘Liberate Confederation Of Corrupt Dictators’”, contributing to the eventual failure and dropping of a proposal that sought to remove an offensive liberation from fascist region Confederation of Corrupt Dictators.

The NPA also departed on two separate joint operations with members of ERN, looking to spread some Christmas cheer before Thanksgiving, ending at Christmas, where Defense Minister 9003 declared Die Hard a Christmas movie and challenged others to prove otherwise. The second, held on Major of November 25th featured an ultimately unsuccessful attempt at invading the region of Japan as variance resulted in the target region updating earlier than expected. However, participating members had a fun time bonding with members of different organizations.

High Command also had something in store for the beginning of the holiday season. On Thanksgiving weekend, a total of nine soldiers from the North Pacific Army gathered with members of several other organizations, including Lily and The Grey Wardens in an effort to unseat delegate Mikeswill of the region Nationstates. Soldiers were seen prepping for the op an hour before the jump, chatting with comrades and enjoying stories from times long past. The raid itself was successful, bringing King Zhaoxiang Of Qin up to the position of WA Delegate for a single update and ending Mikeswill’s 16-year long reign - the longest in Nationstates at the time.

World Assembly Digest

by Cretox State, Minister of WA Affairs

WA Digest

Fifteen WA proposals in total went to vote during the month of November, nearly double that of October. Of these fifteen, eight were GA proposals, with the remaining seven being in the SC. Only two proposals failed at vote, both of which were in the SC. These defeated proposals included “Commend Ariusgrad” and “Commend Twobagger”. Impressively, ten out of the fifteen voted-on proposals were submitted by members of the TNP WA Ministry; this is 67% of voted-on proposals and 77% of passed proposals during the month. A total of ten unique authors submitted the fifteen voted-on proposals this month. Three passed resolutions this month were sponsored Accelerator proposals. Former TNP WA Minister Morover was commended this month.

Most Supported
The most widely supported proposal during November was SC 332 “Commend Sierra Lyricalia”, which passed with 89.6% support and sought to commend a prominent antifascist military gameplayer, WA and issues contributor, and member of the WA General Secretariat. Overall, this was an incredibly uncontroversial commendation that faced no major opposition. This proposal was authored by Cretox State and co-authored by Honeydewistania.

Most Opposed
The most widely opposed proposal to come to vote during November was another SC proposal, “Commend Ariusgrad”. Proposed by Joan Darc, this proposal sought to recognize its nominee’s region-building efforts in the founderless region of Philippines and received 31.7% support. A large portion of the opposition to this proposal stemmed from concerns over the actual significance of the nominee’s accomplishments, along with strange construction; specifically, the proposal cited the region maintaining “warm relations” and creating government positions as commendable.

Most Controversial
The most controversial proposal to come to vote in November 2020 was undoubtedly “Commend Twobagger”, proposed by Jakker City. Narrowly failing with 46.9% support, this proposal aimed to recognize the contributions of its nominee to defending, a subset of military gameplay, and regional development. The proposal was the subject of intense opposition from the beginning, with 10000 Islands being a primary voice of criticism. The proposal’s voting numbers shifted between slight support and opposition throughout the duration of the vote, and a single substantially powerful regional delegate had the power to flip the vote for most of it. The turning point arguably came after a highly publicized incident in which three members of The Black Hawks moved WA nations into The South Pacific and voted in favor of the proposal in an alleged violation of TSP sovereignty. Given the incredibly narrow final margin of the vote, there could very well be another attempt at this commendation in the future.
November Justice Election

by Owen, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

The months of November brought us another Judicial election and this time all three justice positions were up for election. With it being a normal judicial election, there was a larger field than the special elections that have been held recently with 8 citizens declaring their candidacy. The citizens that ran in this election were: Comfed, Honeydewistan, Laeg, Lord Lore, Monkemafiatopia, saintpeter, Vivanco, and Yalkan.

Comfed
Comfed ran in this election on the back of their successful defence in a recent Court case as one of the newest citizens in the field. Comfed also ran on their belief that they had sufficient experience to allow them to take on the role of Justice with an open mind and the ability to be a neutral and unbiased judge of issues. Whilst Comfed received some support, they were not elected.

Honeydewistan
Moving onto looking at Honeydewistan’s campaign, they had a much more informal campaign than some of their other competitors. They had a campaign thread, but did not post any campaign promises or reasons to vote for them until they were asked to. After being asked why they should be a good pick for Justice they said that their neutrality in TNP politics put them in a strong position to ensure their neutrality if they were elected as Justice. However, when it came to voting, Honeydewistan did not receive the support needed and therefore was not elected.

Laeg
Laeg was the most inexperienced candidate in the election, having only joined TNP’s forum in October. Their campaign was a short one in which they promised to work to ensure that laws in the region remained fair and just, as well as ensuring cases were balanced and equal for both sides. In their campaign, they also endorsed Vivanco and Lord Lore as the other two justices that they liked to see elected alongside them. However, Laeg’s campaign was not successful and they were not elected.

Lord Lore
Lord Lore is a Security Councillor within TNP. They declared their candidacy in the election and then chose not to post a campaign thread. Despite not having a campaign thread, Lore was elected as Justice in the third tally of votes.

Monkemafiatopia
Monkemafiatopia is a new member of the TNP community and chose not to post a campaign thread. Likely due to the lack of a campaign thread, they received very little support and were not elected.

Saintpeter
Saintpeter ran off of the back of an unsuccessful attempt to get elected as Justice in the August Special Election. In this campaign, they had more experience in this branch of government in TNP having argued in a request for review before the Court as well as being Temporary Hearing Officer for another case. In their campaign thread Saintpeter argued that it was important to protect the independence of the judiciary, and ensure this by not voting in any RA business during their tenure as Justice. As well as this, they stood on a promise to make the Judicial branch more accessible to new members of TNP by looking at implementing law clerks within the judiciary to allow new members to get experience within TNP’s Court. Saintpeter’s campaign proved to be popular and was the second elected Justice.

Vivanco
Vivanco was the only incumbent standing for re-election. Vivanco ran their campaign as a continuation of their time as Justice after their election in the August Special Election. They also ran on their experience of TNP law as a former Attorney General as well as their time as Justice last term. As well as this, one of Vivanco’s most important aspects was the need for stability and independence within the judiciary. Vivanco proved to be the most popular candidate in the election and was the first Justice to be elected.

Yalkan
Yalkan is a long-standing member of TNP and stood for election for the first time in a while. Yalkan did not post a campaign thread, which proved to be an issue when it came to voting. Due to the lack of a campaign, Yalkan was not very popular amongst voters and therefore was not elected as Justice.

Therefore, after an election that had a good turnout and had a large field, Vivanco, Saintpeter, and Lord Lore were elected as Justices.

The North Star: Lighting The Way To The Truth
Publisher: TlomzKrano :: Executive Editor: BMWSurfer :: Managing Editor: Arichia (Forum) and Gorundu (Dispatch)

The North Star is produced by the Ministry of Communications on behalf of the Government of The North Pacific and is distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs externally and the Ministry of Home Affairs internally. Except where otherwise indicated, all content represents the views of the Government of The North Pacific.

Index of Issues

[Kranostav]

Statement on the Coup of SLU
Crafted in conjunction with the FA team and External Chief of Staff Pallaith

The North Pacific has long been a champion for democracy in NationStates and counts many like-minded communities in this game among our friends and neighbors. When one of those friends finds themselves in a struggle for self-determination and the democratic principles we hold so dearly are threatened, we are compelled to respond, and to ensure that those principles are respected and protected. Earlier this week, the founder of the Social Liberal Union, Ainland, banned the entirety of his region’s elected government and removed the WA delegate’s executive powers, erased the region’s world factbook entry, removed the regional tags the government specifically selected to define what kind of region they wished to be, and closed all of the regions’ existing embassies. He then proceeded to silence anyone who tried to call him out for his actions on the RMB. Due to this unexpected betrayal, SLU's elected government was forced to make use of a backup region, The Social Liberal Union, which has existed in case of just such an emergency for five years and now unfortunately must be their new home.

Social Liberal Union has long been a proud democratic region, with an unbroken history of elections, robust debate, and some of the most impressive and professional legal documents created by NS regions. They have maintained a consistent and respectable size despite being one of the quieter regions in the world, and in recent years have been one of our embassy partners in our forum. The robust and carefully crafted law that community created over the course of a decade very clearly subordinated the founder to a caretaker role, and placed the meaningful power in the hands of the nations making up the region. Social Liberal Union lived up to the ideals its founder laid out, and truly was a region “dedicated to democracy, social welfare, equality and freedom of opinion” where “debate is encouraged.” The community thrived thanks to the promise he made with them, that it would be the region they made, and that it would change form over ten years as its community evolved, as all long-standing regions, including TNP, do with time. It was this community, so developed and different from the upstart region he made so long ago, that he betrayed, and those principles and democratic ideals that had served them so well which he violated. TNP rejects the notion that just because a founder can unilaterally use game permissions as he sees fit, he always has every right to do so, and that such use must be respected. Democracy is fragile, and requires the trust and cooperation of all who engage in it. That is especially true when a region has a singular founder, and the only thing preventing that founder from holding all power to himself is words on a page that all players in the region agree to respect and execute. Ainland broke the promise that underlies all democratic regions, that those words on a page are binding and that they actually mean something. He rendered those words hollow and false.

Ainland’s successor region, Liberal Democratic Union, has been placed on our retaliatory recruitment list due to Ainland’s violation of our recruitment policy, but we would be remiss if we did not also make a point to warn nations attracted by that region’s similar promise of being a place “where freedom of opinion and open debate is encouraged.” These words are lies. Ainland only honored democratic principles when it was convenient for him, and as soon as he saw no other recourse, no other means to get his way or exercise some level of control, he disregarded and disgraced them. If the only opinion that mattered to him was his own, and he was willing to cast out everyone who disagreed just because he had the tools to do so, no one can believe that he will never do such a thing again. The people of LDU can only wonder every day, every year that passes, which thing will so displease him that he would break his word again and deliver them the same fate he did in SLU. A region that holds itself to the high standards of democracy, as SLU did and continues to do without its former founder, would never tolerate behavior like this, and a founder who behaves this way is no true practitioner of democratic values. We condemn Ainland for these transgressions against his own region, and for his hypocrisy. We encourage allies of democracy and players who believe in democratic principles to find a region worthier of their time and attention than his.

The North Pacific recognizes The Social Liberal Union as the rightful and legal government from Social Liberal Union. We have renamed their forum embassy to reflect this and have also offered them whatever aid or assistance they might need while they rebuild and recover from this treachery. We wish them the best and stand with them as we do all other democratic regions and communities who wish to decide for themselves their own destiny, and strive to secure greater freedom and self-expression as they make their way in this game.

[Comfed]

An excellent statement from the delegate. Perhaps this may serve as a warning that using founder powers to control a region with an established community never works.

[Kranostav]

Endotarting Tools for Everyone!

It is with great pleasure that I announce the launch of the expanded Endotarting Query Service. This expansion now allows near every single region in NationStates access to our endotarting service. This means that near all regions in NationStates (exemptions from the list can be found by following the link) now have access to a state of the art endotarting service that makes endorsing all WA members in your region a breeze.

This could not have been possible without the brilliant work put forth by r3n in creating the program for TNP and expanding it for use in the greater NS community. Additionally, I would like to thank Darcania for writing and allowing use of the Zen Mode feature which further reduces the effort required to use this service.

In return, all we ask for is an UPVOTE to increase the visibility of this dispatch so that players everywhere will be able to use this feature and increase their endorsement counts!

Any questions, comments, or concerns can be addressed to myself (Kranostav) or Vice Delegate Dreadton!

As always, Happy Endotarting and a Happy New Year!

[Comfed]

Now we don’t have to use the AA bot to endotart

[Dreadton]

From the region that gave you card query’s, comes easy endotarting.

[Lord Dominator]

Using the WA endo count graph + happenings in your region builds true character

[Nova Vandalia]

-snip-

Does it happen to cache or keep a list of IP's that use or access it?

I know you all definitely keep this information regards to joining your forums, which is why I'm curious.

[1 very fast endotarter]

-snip-

Does it happen to cache or keep a list of IP's that use or access it?

I know you all definitely keep this information regards to joining your forums, which is why I'm curious.

It does not. Both the forum and the off-forum pages work by making calls to the "/endotarting_queries/" subdomain on my "nsr3n.info" server. This is a standard apache2 server, which I've intentionally configured to not log IPs or other identifying information (e.g., user agent) for accesses to this specific sub-domain (as well as the "/card_queries/" subdomain, for reference).

It does log the time when the domain is accessed, which is to let me diagnose in case some user/bot has gone haywire---I have had instances in the past where my server would be bombarded with thousands of calls per second for several minutes, presumably/hopefully by some bot, making my host complain for excessive bandwidth use.

[Nova Vandalia]

Does it happen to cache or keep a list of IP's that use or access it?

I know you all definitely keep this information regards to joining your forums, which is why I'm curious.

It does not. Both the forum and the off-forum pages work by making calls to the "/endotarting_queries/" subdomain on my "nsr3n.info" server. This is a standard apache2 server, which I've intentionally configured to not log IPs or other identifying information (e.g., user agent) for accesses to this specific sub-domain (as well as the "/card_queries/" subdomain, for reference).

It does log the time when the domain is accessed, which is to let me diagnose in case some user/bot has gone haywire---I have had instances in the past where my server would be bombarded with thousands of calls per second for several minutes, presumably/hopefully by some bot, making my host complain for excessive bandwidth use.

Thank you so much for the quick and honest response, it's truly appreciate and thank you all for sharing this.

[Sanjurika]

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We are aware that not everyone is equally appreciative of image-based NS newspapers. As such, we've included the standard format mostly plain-text version of the newspaper in the spoiler below. We hope you enjoy reading this month's issue! If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to contact the current TNP Minister of Communications BMWSurfer.

Editor's Note

by BMWSurfer

Welcome to The Northern Lights.
I have been continually impressed by the cards community, and their dedication to their craft. I have seen newcomers and experienced players alike become excited by this relatively new game mechanic, and cards have left their mark on the NS world forever. I am grateful for the new Ministry of Cards for their help in creating this issue, and for all of the authors who contributed. Happy reading!
BMWSurfer
Minister of Communications

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Note From the Minister of Cards

by DGES

Minister of Cards, you say? You know, many were quite surprised that such a position came into being, and developments such as this help prove just how far the Cards community has come forward in terms of progress. Cards as a feature has lasted for only an estimated two years - a fledgling duration of existence compared to other areas of the site, yet I believe that this issue of The Northern Lights will go into enough depth to justify why Cards has become its own, fully-functioning part of NationStates. Without further ado, let's show you what we mean by that!
DGES
Minister of Cards

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Interesting NSers you might've not known were actually cards traders

by DGES

Please note that everything I will say from here on out will come from me as a regular cards player, not me as the current region’s Minister of Cards.
From time and again, I’m sure many people have come, continued to stay, or have gone from NationStates. However, not all those people manage to catch the eyes of others: some are perfectly fine with staying as regular players, while others choose to ascend within the site in terms of notoriety. Whether they become well-known Gameplay figures, joining the site staff such as the Moderation team, et cetera are all examples, and I’ve noted plenty of such well-known users who - despite their names being recognized for things unrelated to trading - have actually delved (and sometimes even continue to delve) into the cards game themselves.
As for which users I’m talking about, just naming a fraction of the total will take a while to accomplish. There’s so many we have to go over!
I guess the first group of NSers we can go over is the site staff/game volunteers. These people are likely the most important due to them essentially running the site, and one would assume that, due to how time-consuming performing such a task is, none of the users would ever dabble in cards. However, those who are familiar with the cards community know that such an assumption happens to not be the case; so many members of the site staff actually trade cards that naming them all would prove difficult! The most notable ones (in my opinion) would be Frisbeeteria and Ballotonia. Frisbeeteria is a current senior game moderator within NationStates and potentially the most active user in the field; plus they’ve been a user for at least 2 decades. I find it interesting to see how they’ve also dabbled in cards in addition to moderation, holding a near-monopoly on the epic cards market and continuing to possess one of the highest deck values in the trading leaderboard. As for Ballotonia, they’re a current game administrator who helps introduce new features and manages the code for existing features within NationStates; this could be considered even more potentially time-consuming of a job than being a moderator (though that is just speculation), yet Ballotonia has shown time and again to collect cards of numerous types out of self-interest, whether it be cards of commended/condemned nations, cards of World Assembly author nations, or even wacky/fun cards pertaining to rubber ducky images! And to add on to their collections, Ballotonia even regularly offers input, manages, or helps introduce new cards-based content for the benefit of all traders across the site, so we couldn’t be more grateful to them for everything they’ve done for cards so far!
For other site staff members, then I’ve also noted of Luna Amore and Noahs Second Country. I used to trade extensively with Luna (specifically for ex-nation cards), and they’re both a current issues editor as well as game moderator. For Noah, they’re one of the most recent issues editors to be added, and, despite their new responsibilities, they continue to “terrorize” the card market, so to speak (if you wish to gain a bigger idea of what I mean then try reading their condemnation). Both users I have communicated frequently with in the card game, and my experience with them I’ve considered to be a defining point in my journey through trading.
All in all, many site staffers/game volunteers have impacted the cards minigame one way or another.
As for Gameplay regulars, they too have dabbled within the cards market to a certain extent. Whether it be regional officers, delegates, or raiders/defenders, I’ve seen plenty of these types of users trade at least one time and/or start their own collections.
For the most notable ones, there are users like Xoriet, Ever-Wandering Souls, r3n, and HumanSanity. For Xoriet, they’re a current officer within the NPO and a former delegate of The East Pacific; they became especially known within the trading community for hosting pull events for the extremely valuable Season 1 Pergamon card, and they are currently involved as (both) a staffer within the trading cards server as well as helping manage (though I don’t know to what extent) the NPO’s card program. They’ve been an extremely generous and affable user to me, and everyone’s interactions with them have produced similar responses. For Ever-Wandering Souls (condemned raider and influential figure within The Black Hawks), they primarily card farm using their alt accounts, but the most significant thing they achieved in cards was their involvement in the so-called “cards raid” instigated by Refuge Isle and Feu de Glace. I currently don’t know the full extent to how much they impacted trading as a lone user, but their facilitation of the event might have contributed somewhat towards the admins’ changes to card pull mechanics, due to the amount of cards that generated in said event. I never interacted much with Souls so I can’t comment on how my experience was with them, but they seemed to be quite dedicated to trading (in their own way) at the height of their activity. As for r3n, they were actually a former delegate of The North Pacific and largely responsible for the World Assembly Development Programs largely used by TNP as well as Europeia, and (through their management of the ‘The Northern Light’ account) they currently hold the #4 spot for highest deck value - which would have been much higher had they not been regularly/generously donating much of their cards to TNP’s card programs. Super dedicated to what they do, and I’m sure many would agree that r3n could be considered the G.O.A.T. of trading cards (though many are still part of the Koem Kab fanbase of course). Finally, we have HumanSanity. Current delegate of 10000 Islands and on the opposite of Ever-Wandering Souls on the raiding-defending spectrum; like everyone else on this list, I know absolutely nothing when it comes to talking with them from a Gameplay perspective, but what I can say is that my interactions with them (when discussing cards) were nothing but laid-back, enjoyable, and sometimes even wholesome. They currently manage their region’s Card Co-op program, and we tend to joke around with each other in Discord card channels during the time we’ve been able to communicate.
At one point, there were even users Cormactopia Prime and Queen Yuno who originally traded cards. The former was a previous delegate of Osiris (though not on the account I’m naming) and simultaneous nominee for a commendation and condemnation; they were rocking a few legendary cards along with an entire series of Gameplay-focused cards before later choosing to sell their entire deck (even more funny was that I bought some of their cards when it happened!). For the latter, Yuno was a former delegate of The East Pacific, and they were one of the traders who originally tried extremely hard to purchase one of my Season 1 Menta Lee-IL legendaries years ago; as of this moment, they still possess their deck but they no longer seem interested in trading at the moment. Everyone has their own reasons for choosing not to continue card trading and that is something I can completely understand, but when you even have users as widely cited as Cormac and Yuno getting involved - despite their heavy focus on Gameplay - at this point you’ve likely come to the conclusion that the trading cards community can no longer be seen as a mere group of people supporting a slightly obscure minigame within NationStates; it has simply grown far too much and to the point where figures from all over the site have taken at least one look and even participated in it on certain occasions!
Players belonging to communities other than the above two have (also) naturally gotten involved in cards. Whether it be the issues authoring, World Assembly legislative, or roleplaying communities, I’ve seen many come and go over the time I’ve been a cards player. Examples include WA authors Cretox State, Morover, and Honeydewistania. I’ve interacted frequently with Cretox during my membership as a TNP Cards Guild member, and Morover and Honeydew have both posted many times on the Cards Discord server. Fauxia and Ransium (prominent issues authors) fall into the same case as the latter two I just mentioned, with Ransium even regularly selling me ex-nation cards when they were still active in trading. With regards to roleplay, then I’d have to say that Forum 7 regular + Factbooks & National Information poster Valentine Z easily takes the cake: not only do they regularly maintain an extremely large collection of cats (I sometimes gift them such cards as well), but they were also the main architect behind the now widely used ‘Gold Retriever’ tool (a script that outputs the amount of bank one possesses across all their puppet accounts); in addition, multiple players even used their card within a collaborative effort that would go down to be the longest card auction to ever occur in trading history (at least 12.5 days, hehe), something which many of the cards community is still proud of. All of these players - much like the other players I already noted - have occupied themselves in cards to some degree, and there is not much I can really say regarding this other than the fact that I’ve been extremely glad that this has been the case.
Cards have lasted as a feature for an estimated 2 years. Numerically speaking, this is starting to become rather aging. However, as a fully-fledged community it has lasted a bit shorter (due cards - for the first few months of its existence - actually being a mere April Fools Event), and it’s far shorter in its numerical age in comparison to most of the other communities NationStates already has (such as Gameplay). Despite this fact though, it seems that cards have been receiving a welcoming reception due to just how diverse the amount of players have been involving themselves within this fledgling area of the game. Whether it be a dedicated person who volunteers to keep the site running, an aspiring writer who wishes to further their own literary skills in an organization-like setting, or a humble user who loves to help others in communities they are apart of, all of these types of players have come together and have engaged - one way or another - in one thing within the NationStates universe: trading cards.
Yeah, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that the cards community possesses its share of interesting users.

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Smaller regions that are using cards

by DGES

What exactly defines the phrase “smaller region”? Well, I’d definitely state that it’s not any of the feeder or sinker regions; regions possessing a minimum of 1000 nations are definitely not small by any means. That specific number leads one to conclude that, in addition to all the feeders and sinkers out there, large User-Created Regions such as Europe and 10000 Islands (the latter actually possessing its own card program) are also to be excluded from the “small” classification.
In other words, regions possessing a few hundred or below are to be focused within this article, and the reason as to why we will specifically be going over smaller - though not at all meager - regions (and their involvement within cards) is for one reason: dedication. In huge regions such as any of the feeders, there exists hundreds to thousands of active players that work toward contributing to the region they are apart of, and the chance for a region’s card program to grow becomes exponentially higher (than that of smaller regions) due to the sheer number of players within the former likely to get themselves involved, whether through self-discovery or through the large region’s highly developed methods of advertising. Should a smaller region - despite the setback of not possessing enough players to sustain the region’s programs - actually possess its own card program, then that speaks miles of how dedicated said region’s players are when it comes to cards, and I believe that this can go a long way in proving just how amazing cards can overall be for some people.
Without further ado, let’s get to the actual regions!
I remember over a year ago, that in the really old days of cards this one user, Democratic Republic Of Unified States (DRUS for short), really went out of their way in getting together much of the cards community. As for what exactly I mean by this, it’s that they chose to host an entire cards festival within a well-known UCR at the time: Pacifica (a region that peaked at nearly 700 members at one point). As DRUS was considered the region’s cultural officer at the time, their hosting of the cards festival could be considered an official method regarding a smaller (though by no means tiny) region using cards, and DRUS invited most of the well-known cards players at the time (including Mikeswill, Ballotonia, Samudera, and more) to temporarily join the region and offer cards advice, while also simultaneously hosting card giveaways within the festival. This was one of the first (and actually likely the first) time I ever got myself involved within another region’s dwellings in cards, and it’s safe to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the way in which Pacifica pulled it off for themselves.
The next really out-of-the-water region I came to admire was Card Gardens. Though they are not known at all within the Gameplay community, they are actually one of most documented regions I’ve ever come across within cards. Not only were they a region utilizing cards in an official capacity, but the region itself is a literal cards organization. Possessing its own application, giveaways, and its own Discord server, Card Gardens possesses dozens of regional residents along with plenty of official members within its organization. The region hands out cards on a daily-to-weekly basis, and you’re not even required to be a member of any region (not even Card Gardens itself!) to become a member. Highly inclusive as a result, and I myself have donated to the region’s programs due to how active they currently are within the cards community.
As for the next one, there was Psychotic Dictatorships. As a few probably know already, my main account serves a current officer of that region (so this choice could come across as more nostalgic than anything), but I included it here due to the promotion of one of the region’s most dedicated members. Their name is Japhetia, and they were appointed as a regional officer partly for their RMB activity, but also partly due to their card donations. Said donations primarily consisted of Season 2 Menta Lee-IL (the region’s founder) epics, and they also mentioned donating more of the aforementioned epics within one of their most recent gameside polls. Overall, this example is not nearly as huge as the two regions I already mentioned above, but the fact that someone still managed to single-handedly play a role in introducing cards for their region speaks volumes on how far players can go with regards to promoting/enjoying the trading game. Nice working, Japhetia.
Lastly, there is the Tea House of Cards. Like Card Gardens, it would be a mistake to just consider this name to be that of a normal region. Unlike Card Gardens however, THC was not a cards organization, but rather the embodiment of an entire, multi-regional cards event! Organized by players (from regions Lazarus, The East Pacific, and 10000 Islands) well-versed in the cards game, over 100 users ended up participating one way or another during the height of the festival’s existence. Whether by guessing what card rarity they will be when the next season releases, roleplaying within the region’s RMB in the context of a cards-based setting, or giving out full-blown lectures solely discussing the trading feature, a multitude of things were completed during THC’s event duration - and I’d definitely be interested in seeing additional regions being made that would serve as embodiments for card events.
As a bonus, I also once noted of One Small Island (the nation). They’ve long been the delegate of the GCR Warzone Sandbox, and at the height of their influence they achieved over 100 endorsements (as far as I know) during the massive Drew Durnil wave. While their region never officially adopted cards in any official capacity, the user in question had regularly offered card-based advice and encouraged participation in trading to Warzone Sandbox while they were still active.
Similar cases were repeated in NationStates and Spiritus; long-time delegate Mikeswill ended up pinning the Cards Guide to their region, while The Salaxalans (user who even was partially commended for their potato card collection) frequently mentioned cards in Spiritus’s RMB - the latter even starting a regional card collection comprised of most of their region’s members. Delegates are oftentimes seen as a microcosm of what a region stands for, so the fact that these many delegates of regions - despite the regions not actually officially delving in cards - regularly involving themselves in trading as well as encouraging said trading is quite a notable thing on its own.
Overall, in spite of the numerical disadvantage many of these regions possessed in terms of players, the actual members of each region decided to take it upon their own hands and go out of their way to introduce cards in some fashion for their regionmates (and in some cases, for any player who hasn’t even delved into trading yet). People like this not only are considered admirable from my personal standpoint, but also serve as a truly genuine example of how cards - despite its rather fledgling duration of existence - has already influenced a multitude of players to try their hardest to bring about the full potential of this feature of the game. Whether it be through simple promotion on the RMB, regular giveaways to members of the region, or through the hosting/embodiment of entire card-based organizations/events for every player to enjoy, smaller regions could be considered to have performed just as admirably (or at least close to have performed so) as that of the more well-known/larger regions with regards to utilizing cards in their everyday functions.

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What makes a good theme?

by Valentine Z

With the advent and inception of the Trading Cards since the April Fools of 2018, originally planned to be a one-off feature, it has seen a comeback as a permanent mechanics of NationStates, spanning 3 seasons so far, so to speak – Season 0 (when it was first incepted), Season 1, and Season 2. Without going too far into describing the history of Trading Cards, I would like to now talk on what exactly makes a good theme. A theme, by definition, is a set of cards that follows a particular set of rules or styles. When we think of theme, we usually would like to think about the Collections of both the big and small players, along with perhaps a few more. There are several factors that come into play, though none particularly superseding one another; after all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Given the rarity of the cards, the first theme that most of the nations that went through and collected were the Legendary cards – the ones of the highest rarity. Even in the first days of Trading Cards, one can see a slew of collections that are all about collecting these Legendary cards consisting mainly of Admins, Moderators, Issue Editors, WA Secretaries (the staff in general), along with a few other older nations who have issued authors, amassed a large number of gold badges, and just about anything else that have set them apart from the crowd. With this, also branches out other smaller themes and collections that were based on the staff of NationStates. Other nations have collections that were based on themes of seasons and rarities. Often enough, these were the aforementioned Legendaries, but there were also Epics, Ultra Rares, Rares, Uncommons, and Commons. On a deeper note, these would also involve being separated into Seasons – for instance, there were collections on complete S1 Legendaries, as well as S2 Legendaries.
Of course, all of these involved a particular time-frame, or were confined to being separated into rarities, as well as to the time-frames (i.e. seasons). In contrast, there are many other themes that are boundless on these two traits, and instead are only concerned with the aesthetics of the cards. While some of the collections look at the value, these themes are all about the appearances of the cards, and in other times, about the names of these nations. There spans several of these – Entertainment, Flags, Geography, Nature, Objects, and many more. The Entertainment ranges from movies to TV shows to comics; Flags range from ones that are a collection of rainbows, to animated flags; Geography would involve players collecting cards involved with RL flags; Nature involves wild animals, trees, skies, and many more that are the wonders of Mother Nature; Objects involves the more wild card collections that were distinct and different from one another – food, guns, ships, cars, etc.
Last, but of course not at the very least, we also have themes that are hybrids of time constraints, rarities, among many other things. One of the first collections that attracted the eyes of the many would be Destructive Government Economic System (DGES)’s collection – The Ex-Nation Extraordinaire! As of the time of this writing, this behemoth collection has 18,960 cards, all of them being of ex-Nations, that is, nations that has ceased-to-exist (CTE) when the cards were snapshotted. Collecting these cards since the first few days of the Trading Cards’ inception, it would have been an understatement to say that DGES has defined the theme of ex-nation cards, and eventually boosting the demand for these otherwise forgotten set of cards for their perceived lack of value to them. Also from the same user and a noteworthy mention is a collection of cards that have extremely low ownership (usually only 1-3 users have these cards), regardless of rarity. These low-ownership cards can be called a subset of ex-nation cards, since they are still the ones that either does not have a large demand or are rarely pulled.
Of particular mention and my personal favourite are the slew of collections that are relevant to the field of Mathematics because of the competition.1 There is no limitation in creativity and what qualifies as a collection – it’s simply a matter of the story behind it, and the commitment these card players have put into them. There is simply no boundary to the themes that one can create and collect – apart from the aforementioned themes and large collections, there are also these smaller ones, such as memes or Internet Culture-based collections, that uses card ID numbers, their names, their pictures, and just about everything else in-between to make their own unique status quo.
With the themes being talked about, we will now go over to what makes them so good, or a cut above the rest. It is obvious to see their high values and large collection sizes, but none of these would have been possible without one thing – determination. Determination to get the bank that one needs in order to buy the cards, as well as the determination to add these to the collections. The former perhaps need no introduction, given how most of the players have at least tens to thousands of puppets at their disposal to answer issues with to get these card packs. The answering process itself is a tedious one, going through each nations manually and having no legitimate automated system to make it fair for everyone involved. It was simply a matter of how much the player is willing to sink their time into the game. With that, we have the second form of determination of making these collections. It is of note that the “Add to Collection” for each of the cards were only done so recently, that is, the feature was not around for a good majority of the lifetime of the Trading Cards game. In other words, those collections that were large and vast have been done painstakingly, once with going through the list of their main deck to add to, followed by going through the list several times in order to add more cards. As a result of all of this, it takes an equal amount of determination to get these cards, as well as to organise them into neat collections and themes.
In conclusion, going back to the first paragraph of this news piece, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as many of the themes and collections were made differently. While there has been repeating themes and collections from different people, on what makes them good and memorable would be the sheer amount of hardwork and dedication that these nations and players have put into making such wonderful pieces of themes and collections for everyone to behold and to follow in their own footsteps.

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What changes should be made to the cards game?

by Valentine Z

This has been most very likely one of the more controversial topics of the game, because as with most of the situations and problems in real life, there is not a single solution that resolve everything. When something was supposed to solve a subset of problems had by a group of players, it would inevitably cause frustration for a few other players. We have seen this first and foremost with the addition of TCALS – Trading Card Anti-Laundering Service, as it would be called. This was made with the intent and purpose of increasing the chances of drawing and finding a card that was currently being used for a bank transfer. This prevents players from transferring banks without the threat in the form of new owners heisting them, while still offering a substantial chance of making sure that it is fair for everyone involved. While the system was not met with great reception at that time, it was eventually refined and evolved in order to better suit the needs of a majority of players, and it is also used as a means for players to get valuable cards (i.e. by making a large bank transfer called a pull event whereby the card farmers and other players alike can get that particular card).
One of the more common feedback and idea that I have heard from some of the players around are to limit the purchasing power of the players with large puppets, or to put it simply, to prevent them from simply owing a large number of nations. Just like how one can only have a single nation inside the World Assembly, this would ensure that there will be a fixed limit on how many puppets can a player has, i.e. 100 nations. However, this was usually thought less of as an actual suggestion, and more of an idea that players throw around now and then. This is due to the inherent difficulty of making sure that a nation belongs to the player, and it is unnecessary work involved. While the site staff can check for nations of that player, presumably with the same mechanics they use for WA Multing or for Delete-on-Sight (DOS) players, it is something that is deemed as needlessly restrictive, first and foremost problem being that limiting the number of puppets has absolutely little to no impact on the actual card game. Additionally, the needless hampering would have been frowned upon by the other subforums if the limit is lower.
Personally for me, I would like to see a change and improvement in the deck expansion system. The current system is such that in order to get space for another 50 cards (100 if you are a Site Supporter or a staff member), the cost to expand the deck increases with the square value. In other words: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144, 169, 196, 225, and it goes on. This cost model is good enough for the first few expansions as I personally feel that it does help to curb the relatively new players from gaining deck space quickly without effort. However, the cost quickly ramps up to unreasonable levels as it went on, even for some of the players with a generous amount of banks at their disposal. It is of my personal opinion that while the bank cost modelling could be lower, perhaps down from x^2 to a slightly more reasonable x^1.8. This way, the bank could be used for something else, and while also helping to keep the collections more unified. It does not make much sense as to players being able to get new deck space for free on their puppets, while their main card-collecting nations have such a ramping cost that was nothing more than deterrence for having a lot of cards in their deck. A lower limit, personally, could ensure that the newer players would not have such a difficult time, while also still ensuring that the deck spaces do not explode with such an absurd growth rate.
Another controversial and frowned upon practice is the idea of penny-bidding, whereby the buyer would snatch away a purchase from the original buyer by bidding just 0.01 more, and thus the name penny-bidding. While it was done through an honor system at this point, i.e. players usually try their best not to touch a purchase, or they would bid much higher prices as an actual competition, it is still prevalent in some areas and is the woe for players. One of the suggestions I could see is for the system to only allow bids of more than 10% of the current auction price to go through. For instance, if the deal is going on at 10.00 bank match, another bid would have to be 110% of it, that is, 11.00 bank. The next one would need to be 12.10 bank to outbid, then 13.31, then 14.64, and it would go on ad infinitum until one of the buyers no longer has the bank to sustain or make a purchase. The idea of 10% increase requirement from the previous bid was just an example suggestion here, as there could be other mechanics and numbers in play. For instance, instead of 10%, we could have 20%. Alternatively, a piecewise increment is also possible, whereby if the bidding match is less than 10.00 bank, one would need 50% more bank from the current match in order to outbid it. If the match is more than 10.00 bank, then this percentage would drop to 25. I personally believe that this would help stop the slew of penny-bidding and sniping that most of the trading cards are not fond of.
One limitation, however, I can see is in the grounds of bank transfers (using a particular card to make bank transfers from one puppet to another) – the principles and rules might get muddled here, and at the same time, another mechanics – underasking, might become a new problem. Underasking, for context, is the practice of reducing the selling price a penny (or more) lower so that it is closely matched to the bidding amount (selling usually gravitates towards lesser values). For instance, a 5.00-5.00 auction can be disrupted by someone finding a card and bidding asking for 4.99. The card game, given how large it is right now – from small-time players to intermediate farmers, to large thousand-nation-strong players, will have extreme resistant to change, some for the better, some for the worse. While suggestions are welcome and I feel that there are some things that can be changed, I will also humbly admit that the changes are easier said than done, such is with other multiplayer games that we might be familiar with (e.g. Overwatch, Rainbow Six: Siege, League of Legends, DoTA, and many more). Even a smallest change can change a meta to unrecognisable levels and with it, usually a worse outcome or a game-breaking feature that must be remedied.

Addendum: If we use ceiling(x^1. instead of x^2, the prices could be more controlled. For a useful plot of this, please visit https://imgur.com/SAHMGWa

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A look into the Diverse Community of Cards

by Westinor

As you are probably aware, cards are a relatively new feature to Nationstates, having only been permanently introduced in December of 2018. Ever since then, the cards community has grown from a few enthusiastic traders to a burgeoning and considerably large network of card farmers. This Cards community has grown around the practice of amassing bank and cards in order to fulfill a goal unique to each card farmer. These farmers are often distinguishable and can be classified by what cards they collect and why they collect them, and make up the basic pillars of the cards community so many have come to know and love.
First and foremost are those who run regional programs and activities. These farmers tend to focus more on the interpersonal and community side of things, often running regional or interregional cards programs and hosting pull events and other cards activities. Regional organizers have spearheaded the development of the Cards community by helping new and isolated players integrate into the Cards community as well as by holding events and activities for those interested in Cards. Events like the Tea House of Cards and organizations like TNP’s Card Guild help bring together players and provide incentives and aid in helping newer farmers grow. More often than not, these farmers utilize their card farms and expertise to help out newer players and manage programs and activities. These players have also been key in the recent development of Cards into regional programs, a huge step for the Cards community. Cards by itself is not much more than a simple trading game, but these players are essential in bringing it to life.
Some of the most active card farmers are collectors, particularly regional or rarity collectors. Though the term may sound ambiguous enough to apply to all card farmers, these particular traders focus on collecting cards of a certain style or classification, and often involve grouping cards with similar qualities together. Collections can vary from being small or even nonexistent in quantity to massive - just check out 9003’s huge deck! Collectors take advantage of the Card tabs’ “Collections” feature in order to create groupings of cards that they can title themselves. These collections can center around cards from a specific region (like Giovanniland’s TWP collection or r3n’s TNP collection), rarity (see Riemstagrad’s epic cards collection or Noah’s rares card collection), flag, name, puppet series, or more - the possibilities are practically limitless, especially with how creative NSers are with their nation customizations. Collectors are often integral to regional cards communities as well as the Cards community as a whole, with collections often being the focus of many regional cards activities like TNP’s Collection Spotlight and collectors driving much of the everyday market activity through their purchase of otherwise left alone cards.
Now, as noted before, there are many kinds of collectors. However, classifying them all by what kinds of cards they collect would be far too 2D, so I’d split them up into three groups - first off are the collectors who focus on larger, often regional, collections, who tend to partake in cards-related events with others or cards programs. These collectors put spectacular amounts of time into Cards, between placing bids for their humongous collections and often running regional cards programs. In a way, they are the cosmopolitans of the Cards community - their quest to complete their collection leads to encounters with all sorts of card farmers along the way, and thus these members of the community are often the organizers who drive Cards-related programs and activities. There are those who focus on amassing their collections of particular cards, though this group is fairly small in comparison to others. These collections are usually puppets or certain sets of nations, which are also often inflated due to the buyer’s demand. And finally, there are those who focus more on several different smaller collections, usually larger than your two-or-three-card collection but certainly smaller than the massive regional sets accumulated by the first group. These range from certain flag themes to nations with funny names, as well as the collections accumulated for collection-based activities. Most collectors are not restricted to one of these groups, and dabble in varying collections, though most can be identified by their focus on one type of collection.
Next up to bat are the deck expanders. Deck expanders tend to focus more on expanding their Deck Value instead of collecting a specific card, though there’s often a method to their amassing. Oftentimes traders will prioritize nice-looking cards or familiar faces over other cards, while some even go so far as to collect every legendary, which in turn greatly increases their Deck Value. In this way, most people are “deck expanders”, but the ones I’m talking about are those who prioritize higher Deck Value over collecting certain cards. A large portion of deck expanders focus on the valuable commodity of legendaries, but the most distinct class of deck expanders are the MV sharks. Most traders have encountered these players before - they target high-value and often inflated cards that are on the market in pursuit of a higher deck value. More often than not, they will fight and pennybid with their teeth during auctions in an attempt to purchase cards who are often about to drop in value. This species of trader is commonplace in the daily market, so take care next time your complete your bank transfer - you may find yourself missing a card, though likely with some extra bank on hand. More notable and generally more successful than the MV sharks are those who trade nearly exclusively in the legendaries market. This comprises a large portion of top traders, who invest in the stable and high-value rarity in order to move up the leaderboard. Here, flipping cards for profit and card farms numbering in the triple digits are common. This class is distinct from most collectors, who also hold expansive deck value and control huge card farms, in that the focus is on high-value or certain legendaries as opposed to specific cards to fill out a collection. Together, collectors and legendary traders make up nearly every trader you’ll come across in the Cards community.
Of course, the everyday hustle of buying and selling legendaries gets boring for some. There are a few key card farmers who tire of the mindless farming and seek to utilize their newfound wealth to break barriers and push limits. These players, who are often already incredibly successful, employ their vast bank and puppet army to test the very mechanics of the game. In this way, such mechanics like TCALS were discovered, leading to the later development of pull events. These players are just as important to the development of Cards as those who expand participation and hold activities, and contribute more to the technical side of things as opposed to the interpersonal. There is no doubt that without these players, breakthroughs that have transformed the playing field would not have been discovered.
Each class of farmer has carved out their own goals in Cards, whether that be in collecting every card in their region or seeking to dethrone Koem Kab (word of advice: it can’t be done). Card farmers are in the process of shaping and defining the landscape of this community for potentially years to come - and there’s a place for everyone, from the smallest trader to the largest armer, to thrive and pursue their own goals.

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The Northern Lights: Beauty in Truth
Publisher: TlomzKrano :: Executive Editor: BMWSurfer

The Northern Lights is produced by the Ministry of Communications on behalf of the Government of The North Pacific and is distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs externally and by the Ministry of Home Affairs internally. Except where otherwise indicated, all content represents the views of the Government of The North Pacific.


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