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by Max Barry

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 In The Mafia Economic Extremist of The Dark System, a Compulsory Consumerist State with wealth inequity like you wouldn't believe, a problem arose: The rich grew too rich. They are, in fact, so rich right now that they exceed the World Census's ability to track it. That's the thing with the ultra-rich: They always have even more wealth than you expect. But it turns out that if you're prepared to put the screws to the middle and working classes, you can have the richest 10% of your populace pulling down 8-figure averages. This blew a gasket at the World Census and left them unable to track The Dark System on any scale at all. A fix is landing tonight to address this and similar issues. As a result, you may notice a slight loss of precision in your Average Income of Rich, which will no longer be tracked down the last cent, but instead rounded off to your nearest standard monetary unit. This is a little easier to handle when there are 11 million of them to track (on average, per wealthy Dark System citizen).

by Max Barry

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 What with the 215,000 active nations and everything, we here at NationStates Laboratories are working hard to keep your connection with your nation snappy and responsive. Right now we're in the process of switching over to new hardware, which means things are a little slow and choppy, and there may be a few brief outages over the next 48 hours. Most relevantly, today's Major Daily Update is canceled. This means a whole bunch of things will not update, including population counts, WA Delegates, and some census rankings. Unfortunately it's too much for our poor systems to handle while also migrating data. Sorry for the inconvenience! Aside from this Major Update, everything should continue to function as normal.

by The Free Joy State

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 This post comes courtesy of Senior Issues Editor The Free Joy State. Hey, guys, gals and non-binary people! Well, it's been a wild ride, but the issue contest is over, the votes are cast and some very capable hamsters have tabulated the votes. So, in alphabetical order, here are our top ten issues from the contest: Protect and Swerve by Candensia

The Brains Behind Kuru by Electrum

Ignorant Idiots, Illegitimate Citizens by Fauxia

Corruption, Contemplation and Cuteness Amok by Jutsa

Feeling Null by Krusavich

Payday Groans by Lancaster of Wessex

Scattered Showers by Omniabstracta

Covering all the Angles by Pythaga

You should have (copy)Left My Software Alone by SherpDaWerp

The Melting Point by Westinor Look out for those issues as they start to appear in the game in the near future. Look out for those issues as they start to appear in the game in the near future. Please join with the team in congratulating the authors of our top ten issues. See this post in GI for further details.

by The Free Joy State

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 This post comes courtesy of Senior Issues Editor The Free Joy State. Ladies, Gentlemen, and Non-Binary people, it's time to clutch your quills, don your thinking caps and trawl your thesauruses. We are very excited to announce our "Anything-But-Pandemics Issue Contest". Not only is this the latest chance to potentially join our friendly Issues Editing team, but the top ten finalists will also be revealed in a follow-up News announcement, allowing you bragging rights for years to come! Like you, we all want to think about anything that isn't a pandemic right now, so please choose any other topic for your maximum of three competition entries (per player). That's a lie... not anything: disco dancing dino-robots probably overstretch verisimilitude. For drafting tips and advice, check out our issue-writing resource and the Got Issues? subforum (which is where we'd encourage you to draft your issues). Please submit your entries by the deadline of 14th June 2020 (inclusive) by the usual method. Make sure you are fully happy with your submission before entering, and don't forget to tick the checkbox to mark it as belonging to the Issue Contest. Please see this thread for full information. Good luck!

by Max Barry

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 The Election is over! After four days of stump speeches, tense back-room negotiations, and political deal-making, we have a brand new office-holder: Congratulations to WA Secretary-General Kuriko! This Election saw the introduction of Running Mates, so for the first time we also have a nation ready to step forward should the situation demand it: Vice Secretary-General The Salaxalans. I have to say, this was an amazingly positive and good-spirited campaign period. Well done to everyone who participated, whether you ran for office, boosted for a candidate, or just tossed in a vote! And thank you to outgoing WA Secretary-General Caelapes, who, you have to say, didn't put a foot wrong during a fine four years in office.

by Max Barry

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 People often ask me, "Max, why don't you stop writing novels and just work on NationStates full-time?" And I'm like, "Uh, that's kind of offensive. Writing novels is my passion. It's what I love to do." But by then they've wandered off because they don't really care unless there's a web game. But guess what? This time, there's a web game! It's no NationStates. I'll be honest. But you might find it a fun diversion during these turbulent times. There's also a book. You might have heard of Providence from the ads on this site. It's about four people on a spaceship who are trillions of miles from home and have to fight aliens who spit black holes. “★★★★★ Extremely smart... This is Barry’s masterstroke... page-turning anticipation which pays off beautifully.” —SFX “Brain-bending adventure” —Newsweek “★★★★★ Easily the first, best book to beat this year” —Bradley Horner's Book Reviews “A light-hearted thriller with a superb dark, existential sting in its tail.” —The Sunday Times (UK) OUT NOW Learn More • Buy Now • Reviews If you're looking for a good book, or a way to support authors who make satiric web games in their spare time, give it a look! Thank you.

by Max Barry

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 Has it been four years already?? Yes! It has! Which means it's an election year! Once again, the coveted position of World Assembly Secretary-General is up for grabs. This is widely regarded as the most sought-after prize in all the world, and comes with unspeakable power, in the sense that no-one has said what it actually is. ★ Your 2020 Election Hub ★ For the last four years, we've labored under WA Secretary-General Caelapes, but has life actually gotten better? I mean, really? I'll leave that to the voters. Election 2020 will run through three Minor Rounds, during which unviable candidates will be weeded out. Then a final General Election will be held to decide between the Top Five. Voting is open to most WA member nations. If you have at least five endorsements, you can toss your hat into the ring and run! And if you help run a region, you can boost for your favored candidate by erecting prominent signange on your region page via Admin → Appearance. Election 2020! Because we have to do this every four years! Democracy says so!

by Max Barry

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 Hello everyone! As you might have noticed, there is a worldwide shutdown going on to combat the spread of a particularly nasty coronavirus. During this time, we want to do our part to ensure that accurate information gets out to people. Normally, of course, NationStates is a hotbed of discussion and debate--which tends to come with a healthy serving of bias, lies, and misinformation. And normally that is fine. People have opinions. But today, misinformation about COVID-19 is dangerous, so moderators will be taking action to remove it, including issuing bans against people who post it. The kind of thing I'm referring to here are posts that claim the virus is a government conspiracy, or that people should ignore expert medical advice. This is an extraordinary situation, and it's a little uncomfortable for our volunteer moderators to try to be the arbiters of truth. Please extend them your patience while they work through this. In the meantime, I hope you and your loved ones are doing well, and remember, your nations could always do with a little more attention. P.S. This year's April Fools event will not be virus-related.

by Max Barry

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 Almost a year ago, we launched the first season of NationStates Trading Cards. Now it's time for Season Two! Yes, soon you'll be finding sleek new-season cards when you open packs. For the next five days, you can get a sneak peek at what the cards look like. And, during this time only, you can update your card before it becomes permanently inscribed! To update your card: Set your nation's flag, slogan, etc, just the way you like in your Settings. Go to Your Deck and click View Card: (Your nation). It's on the right-hand side of the page, near the top. If you're looking at your own Season Two card, just above it, you'll see a special Season Two Preview notice that invites you to inscribe the card using your nation's current state. Do that! Only nations that existed at the time of the preview have Season Two cards—if you temporarily exited the world, you won't have a card for this season. At the end of the preview period, all newly opened packs will contain Season Two cards. Almost all packs, anyway. You never know when an old card might find its way into production through some manufacturing snafu. But like 99% of the time: new cards. Update (December 3, 2019): Season Two is upon us! Cards can no longer be inscribed.

by Max Barry

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 Good news! The undead have basically run out of live victims and begun starving to death in most regions. On the downside, 85% percent of the global population is either dead or infected. But the number of survivors has stabilized, so if you're still hanging in there, I think you're going to make it! Unless, you know, some zombie exporter slips into your region at the last minute. As I write this, the Z-Day Tally Board tells me that: The North Pacific has Most Survivors

NationStates is top for Most Survivors + No Infected

Equilism has the Most Survivors + No Quarantine; and

The Rejected Realms is a hellscape of corpses and roaming zombies.

by Max Barry

Sun, 27 Oct 2019 Wow! It seems like only yesterday that the undead began periodically rising from the grave to feast upon the flesh of the living. But no: Zombie scientists have confirmed that for the eighth time, the world is expected to undergo a horrific apocalypse. Zombie apocalypse begins in: You might be like, "Well if these zombie scientists can pinpoint the start time so accurately, maybe they should put a little effort into finding a permanent cure." But that's because you misunderstand the term "zombie scientists." They are literally zombies. They wear little white lab coats and sleep most of the year but once they start to get twitchy, we know the apocalypse is coming. What You Need to Know The zombie apocalypse will begin 325 days ago (click for local time)

It will run for 33 hours , ending 324 days ago

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. 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. Researching a cure develops Cure Missiles , which can be launched at other nations in order to convert zombies into survivors. Embracing the undead develops Hordes , which can surge into other nations and infect their survivors. 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.

The World Census will maintain some relevant zombie-related ranking scales: The Most Survivors The Most Zombies The Most Dead The Most Zombified (Note: Up to one hour delay is to be expected in the ordering of these scales.)

During Z-Day, Founders 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 millions of people die. But zombie apocalypses demand tough choices. The Z-Day Tally Board will track global progress during Z-Day. Good luck!

by Eluvatar

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 I have to say, I'm feeling a little, what's the word... Merkwürdigliebe Not to worry, I think plenty of you love the bomb. Your regularly scheduled toe-to-toe nuclear combat begins in: Click/tap here for your local time: 359 days ago There's a handy manual: N-Day: What You Need to Know by The Hive Mind of Testlandia 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 N-Day begins, 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). Watch your nation automatically generate Production at a rate of 1 every 2 minutes. Use it 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. 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 Strikes minus Radiation. 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 N-Day begins, 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. 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 cap is 200% higher. Cost of Nukes/Shield in Production Points Military Specialist Strategic Specialist Economic Specialist 1 Nuke 0.67 1 1 1 Shield 2 1.33 2 PRODUCTION Nations generate Production automatically at a rate of 1 Production per 2 minutes. Production can be spent on Nukes or Shield. If not spent, Production accumulates up to a maximum of 50 for Military and Strategic Specialists and 200 for Economic Specialists. 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 1% 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. 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 10 minutes for a Targeted Nuke to reach a READY state, after which it may be launched. 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. For example, 20% Radiation reduces Production generation by 20%. 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 Strikes minus Radiation. Read dispatch and a vibrant "Vault 41" discussion forum. Don't worry, as peace is our profession, you can always choose not to participate. Non-aligned nations (that haven't joined a faction) cannot be targeted or nuked. All previous Factions will be wiped shortly before the bombs start flying, so you maniacs will need to create new ones. You are allowed to use satellites puppets, but it will be a cumbersome process Good luck to you all. Update: When you play a game of nukes, you win or you fry, there is no middle ground. Update: Whew, that's all over then. There seem to be a lot more devastation this time around, though. Something to think about.

by Max Barry

Sun, 31 Mar 2019 Some people say they've wasted years on NationStates collecting useless knowledge, but now's your chance to prove it! We've assembled a devilish quiz to test your NationStates IQ with a series of ever-more challenging questions. From the simple and irrelevant to the obscure and equally irrelevant, the NationStates Trivia Challenge has questions for everyone!* Take the Trivia Challenge! Trivia Leaderboard (* Provided they have squandered their life on this site.) Update!: For forum discussion, we are pleased to offer Trivia Central!

by Max Barry

Fri, 21 Dec 2018 Sorry, that took slightly longer than anticipated. But now cards are available again! Yes! Trading Cards Finally cards have completed their transformation from a one-off April Fool's event into a permanent feature. Here's what's new: Issues New packs of cards are earned occasionally and randomly when answering an Issue, instead of being delivered on a regular timer. (You can opt-out of this in Settings.) Auctions Cards are traded through a Timed Double Auction, a system designed to reduce the ability of puppet nations to feed valuable cards to their masters. The main feature is a one-hour countdown timer that permits other buyers and sellers to jump in with a better offer, replacing one of the trading parties. Details! There's also a new ability to gift a card directly to a particular nation, for when you want to skip the auction, by paying a nominal amount of bank. Collections You can organize your deck into Collections, according to any scheme you like. One of the great things about the April event was how people set out to build different decks for different purposes—but those purposes could be hard to divine for anyone just looking at the cards. Collections allow you to bestow order and titles upon your purposes. Seasons The original set of cards was made from all nations who were active as at the start of April 2018. This is still the case, but these cards are now marked "Season One." At some unannounced time in the future, we will enter Season Two, at which point a new set of cards, marked "Season Two," will be created from active nations at that time. New packs always contain cards from the current season only. When a season ends, the cards remain, but no more of them will be generated. Cards are now snapshots of a moment in time, instead of changing to reflect the nation's current state. Cards for the same nation will therefore look different across different seasons. Season One cards are unusual in that they were generated in April 2018 but only converted to snapshots in December. This means that a Season One card only exists if the nation was active in April, but reflects the state of the nation in December. Market A new page offers a global overview of current auctions, top cards, and top decks, with multiple ways to keep your finger on the pulse of the marketplace. Assorted Changes New packs don't rarely contain cards of nations that no longer exist.

Cosmetic overhaul! Including a nifty zoomable graphical sales history.

During the April Fool's event, each new pack had a high chance of containing a card of a nation in your region. This remains true, but the chance is much lower.

The number of cards that can be held at once is now limited by Deck Capacity, which can be upgraded by spending bank. This limitation stems from the technical challenges of managing nations who hold extremely high numbers of cards. Nations with Site Supporter status from the Store have double normal Deck Capacity. For even more, there's detail in the FAQ!

by Eluvatar

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 This is the end. The more robust zombies outlasted their predecessors, and at the end of the day outnumbered the living. Some regions, however, were safer than others. Kudos to the dozens of regions which completely eliminated the infection while retaining hundreds of billions to trillions of survivors, to the several which sheltered hundreds of billions to trillions without closing their borders, and to the many regions with similar numbers of survivors. The full leaderboard is available for your perusal. So long, and thanks for all the brains!