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N-Day11: Aftermath
Has anyone ever thought to ask how nuclear radiation clears out so fast every half-year? I read somewhere that fallout lingers for years after detonation; regular returners are well advised to be wary if they don't want to end up living a half-life.
Despite that, this N-Day looked like a return to old alliances and older trends, as familiar face Horsemen of the Apocalypse (HotA) returned to the top of the scoreboard with a bone-rattling 1,074,435 score. Toughing it out alongside HotA were Kingly Heathens Against Neighborliness (KHAN), who survived a merciless onslaught by Anime Nations Against Liberals and eventual third-place finishers Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force to rise back up to a second-place finish. The counterpunch by HotA-KHAN forces leveled their opponents, fulfilling the never-ending winner's curse by bringing Anime Nations Against Liberals down to 535,598 radiation and forcing Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force to eject their own nations in a gambit to escape the impending wall of fire and doom.
Even with an increase to the cost of "cross-shielding" and lowered efficacy on the part of the shieldbank, three factions soared over one million intercepts, with HotA reaching 3,219,886 intercepts, while 2,226,352 nukes were brought down by the shield bank. A reduction in the effect of radiation on faction score did, however, keep many those unfortunate enough to be targeted by the eventual winners above a negative score. If anyone's feeling sour about results, they can take solace in the fact that things could have been worse, and that we'll (probably) be back in half a year.
Congratulations to the top 10 factions and highest scorers by nation this event:
| Faction | Score | Nations | Region | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Horsemen of the Apocalypse | 1,074,435 | 10,668 Nations | Hell |
| 2. | Kingly Heathens Asserting Neighborliness | 138,821 | 3,289 Nations | Kingly Heathens Asserting Neighborliness |
| 3. | Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force | 105,592 | 2,353 Nations | Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force |
| 4. | West Coast Coalition | 28,932 | 10 Nations | California Colleges and Universities |
| 5. | European Defence Force | 22,446 | 121 Nations | Europe |
| 6. | RAILGUN | 21,615 | 10 Nations | RAILGUN |
| 7. | Trans Republic | 20,866 | 230 Nations | Ocalawaha |
| 8. | Northern Kerbalia | 19,250 | 53 Nations | Kerbals of the North |
| 9. | Nova Arctic Republic | 18,122 | 73 Nations | Arctica |
| 10. | Grand Coalition | 17,742 | 0 Nations | Grand Coalition Control Room |
Highest Scores Per Nation (min 10 nations):
| Faction | Score per Nation | Nations | Region | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | West Coast Coalition | 2,893.2 | 10 Nations | California Colleges and Universities |
| 2. | RAILGUN | 2,161.5 | 10 Nations | RAILGUN |
| 3. | Commonwealth Defense Force | 574.2 | 29 Nations | Commonwealth of Sovereign States |
| 4. | The RainDrop Pact | 379.8 | 44 Nations | Africa |
| 5. | Northern Kerbalia | 363.2 | 53 Nations | Kerbals of the North |
| 6. | Nova Arctic Republic | 248.2 | 73 Nations | Arctica |
| 7. | European Defence Force | 185.5 | 121 Nations | Europe |
| 8. | Hot Jambalaya | 150.8 | 112 Nations | Sophia |
| 9. | Light of the Fellowship | 135.8 | 10 Nations | Declansburg |
| 10. | The Cortexist International�Nuclear Wing | 119.9 | 17 Nations | The Cortexist International |
And, of course, we can't leave out our obligatory stats for the number-crunchers among us!
490 factions were created.
35,787 nations joined a faction.
27,456,793 nukes were targeted.
22,701,396 nukes were launched.
7,874,198 nukes were shot down.
2,226,352 nukes were shot down by the shield bank.
12,602,613 strikes occurred for 1,975,281 radiation.
Thank you for playing!
N-Day11: Glow Big or Go Home
It's just like any other day, except it isn't. Muted explosions, like divine thunder, rumble through buildings and rattle your very bones. Alarms, sirens, and cries for help echo in the distance. Lizard-worshiping cultists emerge from their homes and assorted encampments to welcome the end of the world. And as you gaze out upon your glorious nation, now blanketed in smoke and illuminated by napalm skies, you are filled with two things -- irradiated dust and a sense of inescapable doom. That's the nuclear apocalypse for you, and once again, it's arrived.
Sorry, jumped the gun there. Almost arrived. You can find the exact time total armageddon commences using our nifty and well-worn Nuclear Countdown clock below. It's a lot easier to understand than the one the Doomsday Clock people run, at least.
Time until Nuclear Apocalypse:
Click here for your local time:
As megafactions and minor-league hopefuls converge this September for a clash uncertain to be as legendary as others long past, be sure to pre-register for your chosen faction here, head on over to Vault 41 for your usual pre-annihilation banter, and prepare yourself for inevitable destruction with the dispatch below:
OVERVIEW
N-Day is an opportunity for nations to come together and exchange nuclear weapons in a fiery Armageddon of mutually assured destruction.
To Participate
Once registration opens, you can create or join a Faction. Nations outside a Faction can't attack or be attacked. You can join a Faction when you're ready and leave when you're not (to stay safe).
When the event begins, nations will be assigned a random Specialty and begin to accumulate Production. You will now be able to spend Production, fire nukes and deploy shields.
Watch your nation automatically generate Production. Use Production to build Nukes and Shield.
Launch Nukes at other nations and use Shield to shoot down Nukes that are launched at you.
Tactics
The simplest way to play N-Day is to join whichever Faction seems most fun and start targeting Nukes at its enemies while shooting down anything incoming. Your Faction page's icon bar shows everything you need to know, including who's targeting anyone in your Faction, and who your fellow Faction members are targeting.
Attacking: Step by Step
On your Production screen, spend some of your Production to build Nukes. These go into your Stockpile.
On another nation's Nuke page, click/tap the TARGET button and select the number of Nukes to use.
Once Targeted, it takes 10 minutes for your Nukes to reach a READY state (3 for Intel Specialists). Note that your Targeted page is public: All nations can see who is targeting whom.
When your Targeted Nukes are ready, click/tap LAUNCH.
Your Nukes are now categorized as Launches for you and Incoming for your target. Launched Nukes take 3-5 minutes to reach their target. When they do, they earn Strikes for you and inflict Radiation on the target, which reduces their rate of Production. This also earns Score for your Faction and reduces the enemy Faction's Score.
Defending: Step by Step
On the Production screen, spend Production to build Shield.
Find Launched Nukes to destroy. Your top priority is any Incoming Nukes launched at you. Secondarily, you may wish to target Incoming Nukes on anyone in your Faction (see your Faction's Incoming page), and also keep an eye on Targeted Nukes that may threaten you or your Faction in the near future.
Click/tap DESTROY to deploy 1 Shield per Nuke.
Strategy
Strategically, it may be wise to avoid attacks on nations or Factions until you are confident of obliterating them, since this eliminates the possibility of counter-attack. Smaller-scale attacks, which damage but don't destroy an enemy, can lead to an escalating series of grudge-related nuclear exchanges.
On the other hand, targeting an enemy can be an effective warning. And it takes Nukes 10 minutes to be ready to launch, so you can't leave it too late.
Scoring
Each Nuke that reaches a target causes Radiation damage, which reduces the target's rate of Production generation and counts as a Strike for the attacker.
A Faction's Score is calculated by
RADIATION_GIVEN - (0.25 * RADIATION_TAKEN)
Duration
N-Day lasts for 24 hours, after which point, an Arms Control Agreement means that no Nukes can be launched. (In-flight nukes can still land, however.)
The "winner" is the Faction with the highest score; if, that is, nuclear war can be said to have a winner. Which we say it can. It's the Faction with the highest score.
FACTIONS
Once registration opens, Factions can be founded by a Regional Officer of any region. Any and all Regional Officers of that region can update the Faction's official text to issue instructions to Faction members.
Factions can be made open to all members, or restricted to the region's members only.
You can leave your Faction, which is a good way to stay safe if you're signing off for the night. However, you can only do this if you're not engaged with the enemy! That means:
You must not have any nukes targeted or launched at another nation; and
No nukes can be targeted or incoming on you.
Note that in practice, this can make it challenging to leave a Faction, since you may be frequently targeted.
While outside a Faction, you cannot be targeted, and do not generate any Production.
Before joining, it's worth making sure a Faction isn't currently under mass bombardment.
Bikini Atoll and Kicking Faction Members
Bikini Atoll is a special, game-created, faction. It operates as a normal faction, but nations that are kicked from their factions will be transported to Bikini Atoll. All targets on the nation persist. Nations can be kicked from their nuke page, by Regional Officers in the factions founding region. Nations with incoming nukes cannot be kicked.
SPECIALTIES
Nations are randomly assigned a specialty.
Military Specialists build Nukes faster: They receive 50% more Nukes when converting Production.
Strategic Specialists build Shield faster: They receive 50% more Shield when converting Production.
Economic Specialists can accumulate more Production: Their production cap is four times larger than the other specialties.
Intel Specialists can finalize targets faster: Their targetted nukes reach READY in 3 minutes instead of 10. They have no Production advantages.
Military Specialist | Strategic Specialist | Economic Specialist | Intel Specialist | |
1 Nuke | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
1 Shield | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
PRODUCTION
Non-WA nations automatically generate Production at a rate of 15 Production per 2 minutes, up to a maximum of 750 (3000 for Econ Specialists).
WA nations automatically generate Production at a rate of 150 Production per 2 minutes, up to a maximum of 2500 (10000 for Econ Specialists).
Production can be spent on Nukes or Shield.
WA NATIONS
World Assembly members will accumulate Production 10x faster than non-WA members, and have their Production limits increased by around 3x.
It is allowed to switch WA membership to receive this benefit for different nations, but (as per regular site rules) you are only allowed to have one nation in the WA at a time.
Keep in mind that if your Production is over the non-WA limit when you resign membership on a nation, the Production on that nation will decrease down to the limit (i.e. if you resign with 75 Production on a non-Econ nation, the Production will drop to 50).
We ask that you refrain from switching WA for N-Day purposes more than once every two minutes. You will not be punished for this, but it is against the spirit of this change to the event mechanics.
NUKES
Nukes are purchased with Production, kept in stockpile until ready, then targeted and launched at an enemy nation.
Launched Nukes take 3-5 minutes to reach their target. While in-flight, they can be shot down by any nation using Shield. If they're not, each Nuke generates 0.25% of Radiation in the target and earns 1 Strike for the attacker.
SHIELD
Shield can be used to knock out Launched Nukes. You can shoot down any in-flight Nukes regardless of who they are aimed at.
Locate in-flight Nukes under Launches or Incoming, and use the DESTROY button to eliminate them at a rate of 1 Shield per Nuke.
It is possible to waste Shield if multiple nations deploy Shield simultaneously to knock out the same Nukes. However, there is a chance for duplicate shields to 'overflow' and take out the next set of incoming nukes instead.
Shielding a nation in another faction to yours incurs a 50% penalty on the cost to shield (it takes 1.5 shields to knock down one nuke).
SHIELD BANK
It is possible to donate shield to the Faction Shield Bank, which will automatically shoot down incoming nukes. This alone will not stop all incoming nukes, however, as the rate at which the Shield Bank shoots down nukes is dependent on the number of incoming nukes and its size. The exact formula per minute is given by:
MAX(MIN(0.15 * FACTION_INCOMING, 0.25 * SHIELD_BANK_SIZE), 200)
TARGETING
Target a nation by viewing their Nuke page and clicking/tapping TARGET. You may then select how many Nukes to target from your Stockpile.
It takes a short time for a Targeted Nuke to reach a READY state, after which it may be launched. This is normally 10 minutes, but Intel Specialists are faster, finalizing targets in only 3 minutes.
If not launched after 1 hour, Targeted Nukes automatically return to your Stockpile.
RADIATION
Radiation is generated in a nation when it is struck by a Nuke.
Radiation proportionately reduces a nation's Production generation rate by 0.5% per 1% of Radiation. For example, 20% Radiation reduces Production generation by 10%.
When a nation is 100% Radiated, it is destroyed and no longer able to launch any Nukes nor use any Shield.
Radiation is irreversible.
You can leave a Faction when irradiated, but this does not affect your Faction's score.
SCORE
A Faction's score measures strikes and radiation that occurred while those nations were a member. It is unaffected by nations joining or leaving the Faction.
GLOSSARY
Term | Explanation |
Production | Used to buy Nukes and Shield. Automatically generated by all non-destroyed nations in a Faction. |
Nuke | Unholy instrument of death and destruction. |
Stockpiled Nuke | A Nuke that has been purchased with Production and is sitting idle, awaiting a target. |
Targeted Nuke | A Nuke that has been targeted at a nation. A targeted Nuke takes 10 minutes to achieve a READY state, after which it may be launched. |
Launched/Incoming/In-Flight Nuke | A Nuke that has been launched at a nation and is currently chewing up 3-5 minutes of in-flight time. |
Shield | A unit of defensive technology. Possibly involves lasers or satellites or something. |
Strike | A record of how many Nukes have successfully landed on targets. |
Radiation | A record of how many Nukes have struck the nation. Reduces Production generation. |
Faction | A group of nations sharing a common interest in survival and/or bloodlust. |
Score | The Faction Score |
The changelog for this NDay can be found here:
New Additions
Faction Score Update
As part of the general direction that we plan on taking the event in, the scoring function for this event will be updated.
This is primarily designed to balance the huge negative scores and encourage factions to stay in the game for longer, prioritising landing nukes over avoiding all radiation. Now, landing 100 nukes per nation in your faction is enough to guarantee a positive score.
Numerical Changes
Change | Old Value | New Value |
Cross-Faction Shield Cost | 1.2 per 1 nuke | 1.5 per 1 nuke |
Minimum Shieldbank Intercepts | 400 per minute | 200 per minute |
Shieldbank Intercept Rate | Once per 10s | Once per minute |
We were content with the effect that increasing the cost for shielding other factions had on shield usage and would like to push that number up further. Likewise, the Shieldbank previously needed around 1200 nukes being fired to overwhelm the minimum deployable intercepts. This number has been decreased to around 600. The rate at which the Shieldbank makes intercepts has also decreased, from one per 10s to one per 1min, which should make the numbers feel more impactful, clearer to analyse and save some server resources.
Bug Fixes
Bikini Atoll should now function as a normal faction.
Fixed production gain continuing after a nation was destroyed.
Fixed nations showing up as destroyed for radiation values between 99 and 100.
Cleaned up some tooltips and other various pieces of text across the site.
The Winners of Issues Contest: Dressed To The Nines!
This post comes courtesy of Issues Editor Kaschovia.
Nations, authors, and hopeful contest entrants alike... please, gather around. The Issues Editing team is delighted to announce that, after sifting through over 160 entries, the results have been confirmed for this year's Issues Contest: Dressed To The Nines! There were a lot of really great submissions, but the following ten submissions were deemed the very best.
In alphabetical order by author, the winners are:
Dick's Pics - All Wild Things
From Silver Spoons to Swordplay - Bendicion
March Against the Museum - Bisofeyr
Payback's a Witch - Kissinger-Monroe
Infant Influence - Orcuo
When Push-itzer Comes to Shove - Southland
Grandma's Getting Lucky - Terrabod
Memoirs of a Pale Blue Dot - The Ankhalic Vaspriot
Is God In This Machine? - Varanius
We Bought a Zoo - West Barack and East Obama
As promised, the winning authors will have their issues added to the game, so look out for them in the near future and congratulations to you all!
Issues Contest: Dressed To The Nines
This post comes courtesy of Issues Editor Kaschovia.
Fancy yourself a top-rate writer with the best of ideas? Or do you enjoy the finer things in life, like wearing shiny badges and earning the approval of your peers? Well, look no further, because the Issues Team has decreed that the Ninth Definitely-Annual "Dressed To The Nines" Issues Contest shall commence!
By the end of the contest, all of the winners will have their names enshrined on the news page forever and receive the coveted Issues Author badge. However, only the best submissions will run the gauntlet and secure guaranteed addition to the game, so read up on the Got Issues FAQ and issue-writing guide first, then listen to any feedback you receive on the Got Issues? subforum throughout the contest. This is your chance to show what you can do.
You only get one entry, so take your time and make sure you're happy with the submission as well as the topic you've chosen to base your issue on. You must submit your entry during the month of June via the usual method and check the box to confirm you are entering it into the Issues Contest.
For more information, please see this thread. Good luck!
Dude, Where's My Online Political Simulation Game
Someone tripped over the cord that NationStates is plugged into and we went offline for nine days. That's not true. Nobody tripped over any cords. But we were offline for nine days. If we were a bank, we'd be right out of business.
When the site went down, we lost a serious amount of data. The reason it took so long to come back online is we've been putting the pieces back together. Essentially the longer we stayed down, the more data we could recover. So we did that until there was no chance of losing anything more than we had to.
Right now, we are mostly back to normal. However:
Daily updates aren't running yet — so World Assembly Delegates cannot be replaced, and World Assembly legislation won't pass
Trading Cards are disabled — significant work remains here. We are prioritizing recovering data over bringing Cards back online sooner. It's not yet clear how much we can recover from the last 12 months.
Census history is empty for both nations & regions. We expect to re-insert historical data later.
Custom Telegrams folders have generic names. Unfortunately we weren't able to recover names of custom Telegrams folders, although the messages themselves are still there.
We are missing a lot of data from the last 12 months for Polls, Wonders, and Maps.
RMB Search is not yet running.
This was kind of a colossal screw-up on our part, especially mine, and I'm very sorry. We haven't turned to post-mortems yet, but the triggering incident was a catastrophic hardware failure in the one disk out of ten that wasn't part of a redundant array, which turned out to be a lot more important than you'd think.
Data and services will continue to come back online over the next few days. Please note that further downtime will probably be necessary, even if we don't hit any unexpected problems.
Please report problems to us via the Technical forum, or, failing that, a Getting Help Request.
Thanks for bearing with us, and for sticking around.
Update: RMB Search is now functional.
Update: The next daily update may occur at: (click for your local time). It will not run earlier than this. It may be delayed, depending on the circumstances.
Update: We're having ongoing problems with our database that are preventing the timely updating of census data, which affects world and region ranks. Actual nation stats and underlying data is fine; the problem is only with our ability to rank nations on those stats.
Update: The daily update is currently running at reduced speed with no apparent problems. So yay. It will return to its regular schedule following this run, although it may run more slowly than usual while we continue to rebuild our database.
Update: World Census ranks are now updating correctly. We are still rebuilding historical data.
Wandering World Census Writers Wowed When Witnessing Whimsically Wacky Wonders
Note from the World Census Editors: In a short time period, we have observed the rapid construction of thousands of amazing wonders across the world. We applaud every nation for their contributions and their outstanding displays of collaboration, patience, and problem solving. We saw espionage, risk-taking, and propaganda campaigns to a previously unseen scale. Additionally, in the process of putting together this piece, the following observations were made:
- Wonders created: 4,103
- Resources contributed: 488,738*
- Common items crafted: 218,818
- Uncommon items crafted: 41,559
- Rare items crafted: 5,816
- Epic items crafted: 546
- Legendary items crafted: 27
- Total items crafted: 266,766
- Items lost due to failed crafting attempts: 14,185
| Nation | Amount |
|---|---|
| Trotterdam | 13,217 |
| Bormiar | 10,368 |
| Papa Daddy New Diablo | 8,371 |
| Opiachus | 8,364 |
| Kalmykhia | 7,789 |
| Neo-Routhengard | 7,444 |
| Delthorensdale | 6,531 |
| Tepertopia | 6,504 |
| Stuffed stuffing | 6,343 |
| The Terren Dominion | 5,530 |
*) These numbers disregard the early portions of our reporting due to an unruly builder throwing a block of silver at our chief statistician, resulting in a bit of amnesia and Two Bad becoming the most disliked wonder.
Now, from the top multiversal news, statistics, and celebrity death reporters at the World Census, we proudly present:
These Top 7 Secret Locations Are A Must Visit Destination For All Travelers, According To Top Travel Experts.
7. Edel Garden Citadel: Starting off the list, tourists flock to this tropical paradise, hitting selfies with psalm singers and lining up to get a glimpse of the High Priestess. All of the paparazzi is surely important preparation for all of the smash hit pop stars that seem to spawn out of nowhere and proceed to dominate the charts on a frequent basis.6. The Great Gates of Delthorensdale: Only two of our investigators were able to make it all the way to the top of the great mountain plateau that these gates sit upon, but once they had arrived the great scale and detail of these gates promised that something even greater lies beyond them, like a sick BASE jump from the top. Someone has also etched some... Usher lyrics into the side? Yeah!
5. Panda Petting Zoo: Perhaps the most impressive wonder constructed and maintained primarily by a single nation, this magical experience delivers a ZOO FULL OF PANDAS! You can PET THEM! To add to the cuteness factor, they are taken care of by PEGASI! Sorry, this place is just too cute... well maybe not the angry volcano god trapped inside of an increasingly animated eternal flame. It must have taken a ton of effort to get that thing in there.
4. A Big Deck of Cards: Since the international artwork trade became popular long ago, empires have been built around finding lucrative pieces. As such, this network of empires has become particularly powerful, working together to construct an incredibly well curated collection of artworks (colloquially, trading cards) at a massive scale. Naturally, the first satellite communications networks were developed here. Note: Rumors of bribes by Big Farma are unsubstantiated, our note-takers would never use their position to obtain extra copies of valuable legendary artwork.
3. The Overseer's Temple: If you're in for an adrenaline rush, the Overseer's cult will be happy to permanently welcome you into their not-so-humble abode, provided you ensure they remain the most liked structure, much to the chagrin of the serially downvoting outsiders. Our reporters could not identify or disobey the vague entity commanding everyone, and frankly neither can we anymore, so this one makes the list. The song contest here is... unsettling.
2. NationStates World Cup Hall of Fame: You'll certainly get a kick out of the perfectly crafted satire found on this museum's browser based political simulator, but the nations contributing to this iconic hall are evidently great explorers once they get off the pitch. Not only did they discover the Thinking Scorinator, which confuses the rest of the world to no end, but they were also the first to wonder "hmm, what if we combined a jet engine with fireworks?" The answer: a bunch of scrap metal and oddly fervent hamsters. In our not-so-humble opinion, this is surely the most impressive wonder on the list.
1. The Concrete Slab: A homage to the importance of the concrete that makes up the very foundation of many wonders across the world, this gray, lifeless, and seemingly endless piece of rock is livened up by a renowned 24/7 song contest. Each contestant has already won far too many times, but the legendary singers who have lost their vocal cords are enshrined within the rock forever, watching over the eternal flame that appears as the one spot of focus on a slab so excessively large that just it has to make the top of the list. Seriously, everyone is either talking about this thing or pouring concrete.
What a Wonderful World
For ages, civilizations have come and gone, often leaving us only with the buried remains of their greatest creations, from the Violet Tinted Great Pyramids to the Great Comic Book Library of Bigtopia. The mystical legends surrounding these beacons of concentrated knowledge and power have persisted throughout history, creating objectives for ambitious explorers and talking points for desperate podcasters. However, only the most grand and impressive accomplishments have this level of staying power. As a result, over the course of many years, the World Census deployed a highly secretive team to survey the universe for the most interesting, ridiculous, and innovative creations that history has ever seen.
Just as the decisions were about to be finalized, a staffer leaked the project to the world, along with a brochure for their nation's 22-story library complex, featuring an Impenetrable Labyrinth, Intimidating Visage of Leader, and Ultimate Model Train Setup. There's just one problem with this leak: neither your nation nor your allies make the top 7 cut. Fortunately, it's not too late, but some major upgrades are certainly in store. The race is on to build the greatest wonder the world has ever seen!
Campaign for your creation, commit the blood, sweat, or tears of your nation into its construction, and find clever ways to harness resources in order to secure a spot in the annals of both history and conspiracy theory message boards for years to come. This isn't any old monument that you're building -- it's a representation of your wonderful nation, your wandering history, and your winding ideals.
Wondering how to participate? Find more information here.
A Banner Bonanza
This post comes courtesy of Issues Editor Verdant Haven.
One of the greatest things about running your own nation is that you get to be in charge of pretty much everything. What is the Leader's name? Have you designated an official national crustacean? Which banners do you have at the top of your nation page? Those banners in particular are important to many folks, as they represent "achievements" - proof that you have completed some particular challenge, whether it's protecting your environment, or merely drugging your population into such a blind stupor that they have offered to build you a solid gold shrine and worship you as the deity you are.
While we've long had banners recognizing a variety of achievements, there have also been some pretty noticeable gaps. Why are there half a dozen banners for progressively larger militaries, but we've never bothered recognizing superior welfare programs? Why do we reward the weaving of baskets, but not the restoration of furniture? Well, wonder no more! We've assembled more than 50 new banners both to reward efforts that were previously unrecognized, and to add additional stretch goals for those who really have taken their nation to the extremes. We've also tweaked the requirements of several previously existing lower-level banners so they take just a hair more effort to get - nothing dramatic, but enough to reduce the likelihood of a nation being created with the stats already in place to instantly get banners in a dozen categories.
We hope you enjoy discovering and earning these new rewards, and to our completionists out there... Game On.
Looking for Frontend people
Have you ever just ... stared at a pixel?
Back in ye olden days of 2002, to see a website, you'd stare at the equivalent of a window pane in a gray heavy plastic box, and if you looked closely (and disregarded any concerns for the well-being of your eyes), you could actually see that even a white pixel is just red, green, and blue, in varying intensity. Just incredible! But if a pixel looked wrong, I could say "yeah, that looks wrong", and that's it. Some people, however, have this innate intuition to say "add some blue to this pink to make it more bleen to fit in with the heroboxsectionfooterheaderwidget". If that's you, then do I ever have some news for you!
NationStates is looking to bring in some frontend expertise - people that can make things look pretty, design good user interfaces, and make sure the site is accessible to everyone. It's the perfect role for you if you:
Immediately know how to make any wrong pixel look better
Open NationStates and think the default theme is, like, so 2013
Have always been bothered by that one button on that one page that's somehow in the most unintuitive place
Spend your free time checking out the week's hottest new CSS frameworks
Scream in despair at the icon fonts all across NationStates' buttons
Remember what the web looked like in 2002, and want to do everything in your power to eliminate every last trace of it
Want to bolster your CV by showing how you gave NationStates that rizz (or however the kids say these days)
You would move at your own pace and be largely free to choose what you work on, though in many cases you'll also be working together with one or more techies to get something done.
If this sounds like your kind of thing, check out the details here!
N-Day10: Aftermath
What could possibly compare to the pressure of writing a news post? Only the pressure of being the previous N-Day winner, of course! Yet again, as the dust and nuclear fallout settle on the burning remains of nations locked in mutually assured destruction, the Nuclear Apocalypse finds its previous victor KHAN nestled decisively at the bottom of the scoreboard, after a fierce battle against the three next-largest factions of this event.
Congratulations to the next candidate for most radiation on N-Day11, Anime Nations Against Liberals, for taking the number one spot with a score of 722,734; to 2nd placed Starlight Brigade for taking the spot with no radiation and less than 2,000 nations; and to 3rd placed Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force, for remaining strong in the face of powerful attacks from KHAN, making their way back to a positive score by the close of the event.
The Final Leaderboard:
| Faction | Score | Nations | Region | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Anime Nations Against Liberals | 722,734 | 7,659 Nations | Anime Nations Against Liberals |
| 2. | Starlight Brigade | 258,323 | 1,905 Nations | Refugia |
| 3. | Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force | 250,241 | 4,128 Nations | Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force |
| 4. | The Final Frontier | 37,238 | 1,342 Nations | The Final Frontier |
| 5. | Patriot Missile Alliance | 34,730 | 1 Nations | The League |
| 6. | Nova Arctic Republic | 29,110 | 112 Nations | Arctica |
| 7. | RAILGUN | 25,154 | 0 Nations | RAILGUN |
| 8. | The Trident Alliance | 22,812 | 248 Nations | Iris |
| 9. | Motokata Defense Coalition | 16,836 | 203 Nations | The Nuclear Alliance |
| 10. | The Yggdrasil Security Coalition | 14,810 | 98 Nations | The Outer Rim |
See the full final leaderboard
Highest Scores Per Nation (min 10 nations):
| Faction | Score per Nation | Nations | Region | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Nova Arctic Republic | 259.9 | 112 Nations | Arctica |
| 2. | Stellamare Consensus | 246.5 | 10 Nations | Astral Sea |
| 3. | Brian's Demise | 182.1 | 29 Nations | Beating Brian Up Gang |
| 4. | NERV | 160.5 | 39 Nations | Unification Ottomane de Shura |
| 5. | The Yggdrasil Security Coalition | 151.1 | 98 Nations | The Outer Rim |
| 6. | Starlight Brigade | 135.6 | 1,905 Nations | Refugia |
| 7. | Anime Nations Against Liberals | 94.4 | 7,659 Nations | Anime Nations Against Liberals |
| 8. | The Trident Alliance | 92.0 | 248 Nations | Iris |
| 9. | Northern Kerbalia | 90.9 | 82 Nations | Kerbals of the North |
| 10. | Motokata Defense Coalition | 82.9 | 203 Nations | The Nuclear Alliance |
Some stats for the stat-enjoyers:
706 factions were created.
36,375 nations joined a faction.
24,164,753 nukes were targeted.
19,358,054 nukes were launched.
6,063,125 nukes were shot down.
873,938 nukes were shot down by the shield bank.
12,424,283 strikes occurred for 2,038,511 radiation.
Thanks for participating in N-Day10!
N-Day10: Every Mushroom Cloud has a Lead Lining
A new year, a new nuclear apocalypse, a new bunch of funky acronyms to fill the faction leaderboards. Exciting, isn't it? Will KHAN return to secure another victory? Will we see Potato Alliance win its first N-Day? Or will a new contender rise to take it all on the 10th rerun of this iconic NS event?
This year, there have been some changes to the rules of Nuclear Warfare on this site. Read about them here:
New Additions
Faction Shield Bank
Nations can now deposit their shields into a faction-wide shield bank. This can be accessed at the top of your nation's shield page. The shield bank will automatically deploy a percentage of its shields to shoot down a percentage of incoming nukes every minute (sorted by closest to landing). Please note that this number will always be smaller than the number of currently incoming nukes, meaning that no matter how large you grow your shield bank, it will never be able to do all the work for you.
The exact formula for the number of shields deployed each minute is:
This should mean that as long as your shield bank remains at least 4 times larger than the incoming wave, every minute about half of the most threatening nukes (nearest 1 minute of landing) will be shot down.
Faction Ejection
To maintain a distinct NS flavour to faction border-control, we are introducing NDay's first Game Created Faction - Bikini Atoll (located conveniently at fid=0). This faction functions as any other faction, with one exception - when the relevant faction authority (a nation with BC perms in the parent region) utilises the new 'Eject from Faction' button, the offending nation will be teleported into Bikini Atoll, together with all of its targets and targetted nations. The only exceptions are nations with incoming nukes, which cannot be kicked from your faction. Once in Bikini Atoll, nations cannot leave until all the nukes targeted on them have cleared, as usual.
PS: As testing for this faction will be running during the faction registration period, do NOT use the name for your own faction. It will be deleted and I will be annoyed.
Shielding Overflow
It can be annoying, and a large time-waster in a pinch, to repetitively see the 'Your shields prepare to launch but the nukes have already been destroyed' message. To help relieve this somewhat, every time the user encounters this situation, there is now a 50% chance that their shields will deploy to clear the next incoming batch of nukes for their faction instead.
Numerical Changes
Change | Old Value | New Value |
Prod gain p/2min (non-WA) | 1 | 15 |
Prod gain p/2min (WA) | 10 | 150 |
Production Cap (non-WA) | 50 | 750 (3000 for Econ) |
Production Cap (WA) | 150 | 2500 (10000 for Econ) |
Cost Per Nuke | 1 (0.67 for MilSpec) | 3 (2 for MilSpec) |
Cost Per Shield | 2 (1.33 for StratSpec) | 6 (4 for StratSpec) |
Radiation Taken Per Nuke | 1 | 0.25 |
Production Loss per point of Radiation | 1% (max 100) | 0.5% (max 50) |
Cross-Faction Shield Cost | 1 per 1 nuke | 1.2 per 1 nuke |
With these changes, we aim to give the player the feeling of having more stuff at their disposal. People have generally looked favourably upon the WA buffs giving the sensation of having more prod and nukes to buy, so we have extended that to all nations, increasing (effective) production gain by five times. The corresponding WA buffs remain (10x prod), and the production cap benefits have slightly increased (roughly 3.33x up from 3x). We have also increased the costs of both nukes and shields to get rid of the complicated fractions and offset that by increasing the production gain by the same scale.
Since the gap between nuke and shield purchases has grown by 5x (an hour of prod can now buy 150 nukes and 75 shields, up from 30 and 15), we have decreased the effect of nukes on nation radiation by 4x (making nukes slightly more effective overall).
The production loss also seemed a little too frustrating to deal with, so we have reduced this from 1% loss per rad (up to 100%) down to 0.5% loss per rad, up to a max of 50%. This means that a nation at 99 rads will still be operating at more than half efficiency, increasing the importance of getting those final blows.
Lastly, the cost of shielding across factions has been slightly increased, to encourage more consideration towards the trade-off on shielding nukes that are headed to factions other than yours.
Bug Fixes
Non-Exec WA delegates can no longer edit faction details.
Fixed Broken 'Prev' page on some pages (linked to page 1 instead of the previous page)
Faction Endorsements are now opened during the faction registration period, instead of when the event starts.
Captchas - should hopefully feel better this time around, but no promises just yet.
The time until the Nuclear Apocalypse is shown below:
Click here for your local time:
Faction Registrations and the Vault 41 forum will open three days before the event starts.
Best Nation in the World : With Love from NationStates
Valentine's Day - a time of year for cute couples and perfect pairs to celebrate each other, go on movie dates and plan candlelit dinners. But what is left for those of us who remain unmatched, other than to answer issues and write Factbooks on a day filled with joy for our partnered fellows? When swiping through the latest dating app becomes too burdensome to bear, one can instead swipe through the annual Best Nation in the World event!
When voting opens, for 28 hours, you will gain access to this page. Here, you will see two nations. The task presented to you is simple - click the one that is dearest to your heart. Or neither, if your heart stays cold and indifferent. We only know that one cannot click both. Sometimes, the most difficult of choices require the most critical of judgements. Those who have survived our players' strictest audits will be displayed on the leaderboard. If you want to know how your nation is doing, you'll be able to see it on your nation page.
Check below to see the start time of the event for you.
Voting opens in:
Z-Day12: 1.182 Trillion Brains Is Enough For Anyone
Thank you for participating in this year's global struggle for/against the undead. We are pleased to report that we have now cleared all that nonsense away.
Get your final Z-Day12 Tally here!
Special congratulations to regions that slayed the leaderboard categories! Especially:
Ambition (Most Survivors, Most Survivors with No Zombies)
Equilism (Most Survivors with No Quarantine); and
Chicken Overlords (Most Zombies, Most Dead)
Z-Day12: Hungry Hungry Zombies
The hour we warned you of has come: it is the NationStates Zombie apocalypse!
What You Need to Know
The zombie apocalypse will begin (click for local time)
It will run for 36 hours, ending
Zombies move between nations in the same region. This makes it important to be aware of what your neighbors are doing, as will be difficult for an individual nation to hold out in a heavily infected region. Each region will report its infection rate so that residents can make an informed choice about which are relatively safe and which are basically pools of pandemic-level z-virus.
You have three options:
Exterminate the zombies with military force. This converts them into dead citizens, who pose no further risk to the living. It is very effective when you have lots of survivors and few zombies, and less effective when your military forces have mostly been eaten. But be warned! Sometimes the dead rise again.
Research a cure, which helps to lower your region's infection rate. Enough nations working together can slow or stop the spread of zombies and even begin to turn infected back into survivors. However, this takes time and is most effective with test subjects and collaboration.
Embrace the zombie hordes, becoming part of the problem as you spread zombies all around your region. Eventually, of course, your hordes may run out of food and starve. This option isn't for everyone. But there's always someone.
Your nation may also unlock superweapons over time. Once built, they can be manually deployed against targets of your choice by visiting their nation page and hitting the appropriate button.
Exterminating zombies develops Tactical Zombie Elimination Squads, who can enter other nations and kill zombies there. They can also restore zombie command and control centers have been zombified to the respective government's control.
Researching a cure develops Cure Missiles, which can be launched at other nations in order to convert zombies into survivors. They, too, can restore zombie command and control centers have been zombified to the respective government's control.
Embracing the undead develops Hordes, which can surge into other nations and infect their survivors, and zombify other nations' zombie command and control centers.
Superweapons can be deployed every 20 seconds. If you take a hit from a superweapon, the resulting chaos makes your own superweapon unavailable for a few minutes.
There is a Zombie Spotting page which can be used to intelligently target your superweapons.
The World Census will maintain some relevant zombie-related ranking scales:
(Note: Up to one hour delay is to be expected in the ordering of these scales.)
During Z-Day, Governors and Delegates can close their region's borders at no Influence cost, sealing themselves off the from the world, and the plaintative cries of nations seeking refuge. It seems pretty harsh. You're just sitting there watching trillions of people die. But zombie apocalypses demand tough choices.
There will be a no worldwide resets or setbacks this time.
The rate of zombie infection and cure development has been slowed down again, to something closer to our "classic" speed. Also there are more zombies to start with.
The Z-Day Tally Board will track global progress during Z-Day. Good luck!
Z-Day12: Ich Bin Ein Hamburger
I've always felt a tinge of compassion for your everyday zombie. Locked away in a repetitive, mindless cycle of existence, forced to toil away in servitude to his basic needs and desires. We're not so different, really, this hypothetical zombie and I.
He and I could even become the bestest of friends someday! If he wasn't so fond of my brain, that is. I'm very fond of my brain too, you see. Maybe it would be best to act in my own interests, resorting to violence to protect my precious brain if I must. Or, perhaps I could use this brain I wish to keep safe to figure out how to cure the poor soul. Then, instead of a desire to pursue brains, he would become just like me, pursuing other, more acceptable desires. This pursuit has never harmed anything or anyone, of course. That way, we could truly be friends!
Zombie apocalypse begins in:
N-Day9: Post Mortem
This N-Day, I learned two things. Firstly, everyone loves having ten times as many nukes to fire. Secondly, everyone loves it when those nukes are fired at four-time winners Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who ended this event at the bottom of the scoreboard with almost 745,000 radiation.
Congratulations to the winners Kingly Heathens Asserting Neighborliness and runners-up Potato Alliance, whose coalition clinched their victory from the combined forces of the third to fifth place factions. A special shoutout to Anime Nations Against Liberals (3rd) for raking up a record 782,622 intercepts; to Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force (4th) for accumulating a score of 97,791 with less than 1000 nations; and to Starlight Brigade for placing fifth overall despite averaging 91.2 radiation per nation.
The final top 10:
Some statistics for the nerds:
- 662 factions were created.
- 33,705 nations joined a faction.
- 5,380,472 nukes were targeted.
- 4,415,445 nukes were launched.
- 2,430,331 nukes were shot down.
- 50,656 volleys occurred and caused 1,533,132 radiation.
N-Day9: World Annihilation
As the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons comes to pass each year, so does the total elimination of all nuclear weapons on NationStates. This weekend, join us in getting rid of all those pesky, dangerous nukes in the most efficient way known to mankind - by launching them at your nasty neighbours!
- Be amazed as your citizens go from protest to praise, proud of living in a completely nuke-free country, mere minutes after launch.
- Rejoice as your nation's laziest labourers head down to the factories with newfound motivation, gazing at the rocket trails on the horizon.
- Take heart as fellow nations join your cause, banding into great factions. The larger they get, the harder they fall!
Note: N-Day will have no actual effect on any nation stats.
The apocalypse begins in in: Click here for your local time:
We are keeping the pre-registration from last year, meaning that you will be able to create and join factions a few days before the event begins. Furthermore, collaborative efforts between World Assembly member states have borne fruit in new production technologies. This year, nations that are both members of the WA and an N-Day faction will receive a significant boost to their production speed and cap. You can read more about this, and N-Day in general, in the dispatch below:
OVERVIEW N-Day is an opportunity for nations to come together and exchange nuclear weapons in a fiery Armageddon of mutually assured destruction. To Participate Once registration opens, you can create or join a Faction. Nations outside a Faction can't attack or be attacked. You can join a Faction when you're ready and leave when you're not (to stay safe). When the event begins, nations will be assigned a random Specialty and begin to accumulate Production. You will now be able to spend Production, fire nukes and deploy shields. Watch your nation automatically generate Production. Use Production to build Nukes and Shield. Launch Nukes at other nations and use Shield to shoot down Nukes that are launched at you. Tactics The simplest way to play N-Day is to join whichever Faction seems most fun and start targeting Nukes at its enemies while shooting down anything incoming. Your Faction page's icon bar shows everything you need to know, including who's targeting anyone in your Faction, and who your fellow Faction members are targeting. Attacking: Step by Step On your Production screen, spend some of your Production to build Nukes. These go into your Stockpile. On another nation's Nuke page, click/tap the TARGET button and select the number of Nukes to use. Once Targeted, it takes 10 minutes for your Nukes to reach a READY state (3 for Intel Specialists). Note that your Targeted page is public: All nations can see who is targeting whom. When your Targeted Nukes are ready, click/tap LAUNCH. Your Nukes are now categorized as Launches for you and Incoming for your target. Launched Nukes take 3-5 minutes to reach their target. When they do, they earn Strikes for you and inflict Radiation on the target, which reduces their rate of Production. This also earns Score for your Faction and reduces the enemy Faction's Score. Defending: Step by Step On the Production screen, spend Production to build Shield. Find Launched Nukes to destroy. Your top priority is any Incoming Nukes launched at you. Secondarily, you may wish to target Incoming Nukes on anyone in your Faction (see your Faction's Incoming page), and also keep an eye on Targeted Nukes that may threaten you or your Faction in the near future. Click/tap DESTROY to deploy 1 Shield per Nuke. Strategy Strategically, it may be wise to avoid attacks on nations or Factions until you are confident of obliterating them, since this eliminates the possibility of counter-attack. Smaller-scale attacks, which damage but don't destroy an enemy, can lead to an escalating series of grudge-related nuclear exchanges. On the other hand, targeting an enemy can be an effective warning. And it takes Nukes 10 minutes to be ready to launch, so you can't leave it too late. Scoring Each Nuke that reaches a target causes Radiation damage, which reduces the target's rate of Production generation and counts as a Strike for the attacker. A Faction's Score is calculated by Duration N-Day lasts for 24 hours, after which point, an Arms Control Agreement means that no Nukes can be launched. (In-flight nukes can still land, however.) The "winner" is the Faction with the highest score; if, that is, nuclear war can be said to have a winner. Which we say it can. It's the Faction with the highest score. FACTIONS Once registration opens, Factions can be founded by a Regional Officer of any region. Any and all Regional Officers of that region can update the Faction's official text to issue instructions to Faction members. Factions can be made open to all members, or restricted to the region's members only. You can leave your Faction, which is a good way to stay safe if you're signing off for the night. However, you can only do this if you're not engaged with the enemy! That means: You must not have any nukes targeted or launched at another nation; and No nukes can be targeted or incoming on you.
Note that in practice, this can make it challenging to leave a Faction, since you may be frequently targeted. While outside a Faction, you cannot be targeted, and do not generate any Production. Before joining, it's worth making sure a Faction isn't currently under mass bombardment. Bikini Atoll and Kicking Faction Members SPECIALTIES Nations are randomly assigned a specialty. Military Specialists build Nukes faster: They receive 50% more Nukes when converting Production. Strategic Specialists build Shield faster: They receive 50% more Shield when converting Production. Economic Specialists can accumulate more Production: Their production cap is four times larger than the other specialties. Intel Specialists can finalize targets faster: Their targetted nukes reach READY in 3 minutes instead of 10. They have no Production advantages. 1 Nuke 1 Shield PRODUCTION Production can be spent on Nukes or Shield. WA NATIONS We ask that you refrain from switching WA for N-Day purposes more than once every two minutes. You will not be punished for this, but it is against the spirit of this change to the event mechanics. NUKES Nukes are purchased with Production, kept in stockpile until ready, then targeted and launched at an enemy nation. Launched Nukes take 3-5 minutes to reach their target. While in-flight, they can be shot down by any nation using Shield. If they're not, each Nuke generates 0.25% of Radiation in the target and earns 1 Strike for the attacker. SHIELD Shield can be used to knock out Launched Nukes. You can shoot down any in-flight Nukes regardless of who they are aimed at. Locate in-flight Nukes under Launches or Incoming, and use the DESTROY button to eliminate them at a rate of 1 Shield per Nuke. It is possible to waste Shield if multiple nations deploy Shield simultaneously to knock out the same Nukes. However, there is a chance for duplicate shields to 'overflow' and take out the next set of incoming nukes instead. Shielding a nation in another faction to yours incurs a 50% penalty on the cost to shield (it takes 1.5 shields to knock down one nuke). SHIELD BANK It is possible to donate shield to the Faction Shield Bank, which will automatically shoot down incoming nukes. This alone will not stop all incoming nukes, however, as the rate at which the Shield Bank shoots down nukes is dependent on the number of incoming nukes and its size. The exact formula per minute is given by: TARGETING Target a nation by viewing their Nuke page and clicking/tapping TARGET. You may then select how many Nukes to target from your Stockpile. It takes a short time for a Targeted Nuke to reach a READY state, after which it may be launched. This is normally 10 minutes, but Intel Specialists are faster, finalizing targets in only 3 minutes. If not launched after 1 hour, Targeted Nukes automatically return to your Stockpile. RADIATION Radiation is generated in a nation when it is struck by a Nuke. Radiation proportionately reduces a nation's Production generation rate by 0.5% per 1% of Radiation. For example, 20% Radiation reduces Production generation by 10%. When a nation is 100% Radiated, it is destroyed and no longer able to launch any Nukes nor use any Shield. Radiation is irreversible. You can leave a Faction when irradiated, but this does not affect your Faction's score. SCORE A Faction's score measures strikes and radiation that occurred while those nations were a member. It is unaffected by nations joining or leaving the Faction. GLOSSARY Term Explanation Production Used to buy Nukes and Shield. Automatically generated by all non-destroyed nations in a Faction. Nuke Unholy instrument of death and destruction. Stockpiled Nuke A Nuke that has been purchased with Production and is sitting idle, awaiting a target. Targeted Nuke A Nuke that has been targeted at a nation. A targeted Nuke takes 10 minutes to achieve a READY state, after which it may be launched. Launched/Incoming/In-Flight Nuke A Nuke that has been launched at a nation and is currently chewing up 3-5 minutes of in-flight time. Shield A unit of defensive technology. Possibly involves lasers or satellites or something. Strike A record of how many Nukes have successfully landed on targets. Radiation A record of how many Nukes have struck the nation. Reduces Production generation. Faction A group of nations sharing a common interest in survival and/or bloodlust. Score The Faction Score
As always, be on the lookout for the soon-to-open Vault 41 subforum.
RADIATION_GIVEN - (0.25 * RADIATION_TAKEN)
Bikini Atoll is a special, game-created, faction. It operates as a normal faction, but nations that are kicked from their factions will be transported to Bikini Atoll. All targets on the nation persist. Nations can be kicked from their nuke page, by Regional Officers in the factions founding region. Nations with incoming nukes cannot be kicked.
Non-WA nations automatically generate Production at a rate of 15 Production per 2 minutes, up to a maximum of 750 (3000 for Econ Specialists).
WA nations automatically generate Production at a rate of 150 Production per 2 minutes, up to a maximum of 2500 (10000 for Econ Specialists).
World Assembly members will accumulate Production 10x faster than non-WA members, and have their Production limits increased by around 3x.
It is allowed to switch WA membership to receive this benefit for different nations, but (as per regular site rules) you are only allowed to have one nation in the WA at a time.
Keep in mind that if your Production is over the non-WA limit when you resign membership on a nation, the Production on that nation will decrease down to the limit (i.e. if you resign with 75 Production on a non-Econ nation, the Production will drop to 50). MAX(MIN(0.15 * FACTION_INCOMING, 0.25 * SHIELD_BANK_SIZE), 200)
Congratulations to the winners of Issue Contest: Was It Something We Eight?
This post comes courtesy of Issues Editor Verdant Haven.
Begin intercepted transmission:
3d1t0r: "Yes... excellent... our eighth Annual Game to Encourage New Draft Activity has been a success!"
4dm1n: "That's gr-eight! Did you r-eight them all? The d-eight is getting l-eight, how much longer do you need to deb-eight before announcing the winners?"
3d1t0r: "We can announce them now, but why are you talking so strangely?"
4dm1n: "W-eight, what? You started it! It's eight-puns for the eighth contest!"
3d1t04: "Pfft, eight-puns are so outdated - the next contest will be nine, not eight."
4dm1n: "..."
The Issues Editing Team was hoping to see some major submission activity, and you responded big time with nearly 200 entries! After carefully spinning our hamster-wheels, and spending a good long time peering into the mirror-lined box that is our collective psyche, we're ready to announce this year's winners!
Presented in alphabetical order by author, the winners are:
Spare the (Plutonium) Rod by Cretox State
The Taste of Revenge by Edush
Haters Are Such A Drag by Falafelandia
The Magical Adventures of LEADER by Kaschovia
Emergency Department Problems Ramping Up by Klaus Devestatorie
Loose Lips, Characters Shipped? by Novo Terres
Fauxthentic Food by Osheiga
(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Sample!) by Southland
Profitable for Doctrine by Tinhampton
Circling the Brain Drain by West Barack and East Obama
Please join us in congratulating our winners! You can expect to see these issues start appearing in game soon.
This Weekend: Cards Against NationStates
Remember Cards Against NationStates? Of course you don't, it was eight years ago, that's a thousand years in internet time. But it was the 2015 April Fools event. Like the game "Cards Against Humanity," but NS themed.
For this weekend, the game has been fixed up and is highlighted for visibility! You can organize a game with people you know, or randomly dip into someone else's.
Issues Contest: Was It Something We Eight?
This post comes courtesy of Issues Editor Verdant Haven.
Begin intercepted transmission:
3d1t0r: "W-eight for it... w-eight for it... one must appreci-eight the need for proper timing."
4dm1n: "Ugh, stop punning. We h-eight w-eighting, and you know we... hang on. Why are we speaking in puns, too?"
3d1t0r: "It's f-eight! The eighth Issues Contest is here, and will domin-eight our minds until we've had time to deb-eight the entries!"
4dm1n: "Please make it stop! Can we just announce this thing already?"
3d1t04: "That would be gr-eight, m-eight!"
4dm1n: "..."
Do you love issues? Do you enjoy creating content for your fellow players? Do you really want to earn a swanky little gift-shaped badge for your nation page, which proudly declares "Issues Author" for people who hover their mouse over it? Then you've come to the right place!
We are pleased to announce our eighth Roughly-Annual Issues Contest - "Was It Something We Eight?" Winners will be announced on the news page, and will earn the aforementioned swanky gift-shaped badge. More importantly, all of our winning submissions are guaranteed to be added to the game, where they will become a part of the Issues canon enjoyed by all of our players from around the world!
The contest only permits one entry per player, so we strongly encourage you to draft on the Got Issues? forum, where you can get helpful feed back from editors and fellow authors, and can access the Got Issues FAQ and issue-writing guide. Your choice of topic is entirely up to you - bring your A-game and show the world what you can do!
Please submit your issue during the month of June, using the usual method, and make sure to check the box that confirms you are entering your submission for the Issues Contest! Please ensure that you're happy with your submission prior to sending it in - there is no "undo" button on submission.
Please see this thread for full information. Good luck!
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