Remove ads

Sufficient Union: The Unofficial SV Region on Nationstates

Created
Status
Ongoing
Watchers
34
Recent readers
0
Threadmarks
17
"Proof that that all you need for democracy is one voting system at sufficient velocity".
Our...
Threadmarks Informational
Reader mode
Remove ads
Introduction
  • Threadmarks
    • Cetashwayo

    Cetashwayo

    Lord of Ten Thousand Years
    Location
    Across the Horizon


    "Proof that that all you need for democracy is one voting system at sufficient velocity".
    Our Region
    Our Discord
    ​
    Sufficient Union is a forum experiment in democratic governance and decision-making using Sufficient Velocity's quest-voting system. Hosted on Nationstates, a national and regional politics simulator with a humorous bent to its gameplay and a complicated emergent metagame, the goal of Sufficient Union is to navigate the complex politics and culture of Nationstates in true SV fashion, through random and haphazrd voting.​

    The Nationstates FAQ

    So what is this?

    NationStates is a free nation simulation game. You create your own country, fashioned after your own ideals, and care for its people. Either that or you deliberately torture them. It's really up to you.
    Is it a serious political thing, or just for fun?

    You can play it either way. NationStates does have humorous bent, but that's just because politics is naturally funny.
    What do I do?

    First, create a nation. From there, it depends. Most nations concentrate on developing their laws and ideology by answering Issues, which pop up several times a day. Others prefer to engage on the international scene by winning a position of power in Regions, crafting international law in the World Assembly, or discussing various matters in the Forums. You can explore or ignore different areas of the world as you choose.
    How do I win?

    Beats the hell out of me. You can make an infinite variety of nations, but no-one can tell you which are best. Nations do get ranked on many different scales by the bean-counters at the World Census, but being ranked high on a scale isn't necessarily a good thing. Is it a badge of honor or a mark of shame to reach the top of "Most Religious?"
    Can I attack other nations?

    No. Nations cannot be damaged or destroyed by foreign powers. You develop your nation the way you want, without being forced to take care of the military, or the economy, or anything else you don't especially prioritize.
    But I keep hearing about invasions.

    Some nations craft battles, trading pacts, and more on their regional boards or in forums such as International Incidents. But there's also a type of interregional invasion known as "raiding" or "R/D". This is where organized groups of nations attempt to seize control of regions by moving there en masse and endorsing each other to gain political power. Unlike nations, regions can effectively be captured and destroyed. This isn't common, but isn't unheard of, either.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    What is the plan?

    To establish a large and active Sufficientvelocity region (conglomerate of nations) on Nationstates, with an eventual goal of even drawing in "native" nationstates players with our unique participatory democratic system of quest voting. This is not a "roleplay" region, in the sense that we're not centered around roleplaying out a complex real-world scenario. Instead, think of this as a collaborative experiment in democratic decision-making in Nationstates, spiced up with some jokes and light roleplay, but nothing particularly arduous. Most of our focus is going to be on the actual metagame of nationstates, as we take a foray into the interregional culture and democracy.

    Eventually we'll set up offices and do some politics. For now, just vote for decisions as they come up, endorse the world assembly delegate (Sarakart) and enjoy the experiment. Tell your friends! Encourage them to come! It's a pretty low investment thing.

    The way voting works is that the world assembly delegate will present a series of issues with voteable options to the members of Sufficient Union. What they decide will become the decision of the entire region, and will be implemented by the World Assembly Delegate. For example, if the members decide to vote against a security council resolution, the delegate will vote against the resolution.

    What should I do?

    First, join nationstates. If you used to have a nation of some description, then it's possible for you to resurrect it if you remember the name and still have the email you used to sign up.

    Then:

    1. Go to settings>telegram preferences and turn off recruitment telegrams, to prevent spam from people asking you to be part of their region.
    2. Go to the region you're in and click to leave. Search for "sufficient union", or just follow the link at the top of this post.
    3. Join Sufficient Union with the password provided here.
    4. Go to the World Assembly tab on the left, and join the world assembly by confirming the email you get when you join.
    5. Go to Sarakart and click "endorse" at the bottom. This will bolster our WA delegate's voting power and protect us against raiders. Feel free to endorse everyone else in the region, too. Hand them out like candy.
    6. Post your nation name in this thread, so we can add it to a list of members.
    7. Remember, multiple nations are allowed, but only one nation per person can join the world assembly.

    And Remember!

    The actual "gameplay" of issues is irrelevent to the "metagame", which involves player and game-created regions constructing their own political systems. Think of it as an "online government" type of deal, or a model united nations but perhaps not as blindingly pretentious, and a little less meaningful (somehow).

    How do invasions work?

    Invasions are an important part of the Nationstates metagame. Here's how they work:

    1. The founder nation for a region (a group of nations, like Sufficient Union), who has ultimate executive powers to remove anyone and do anything, ceases to exist after inactivity.
    2. The region's WA delegate is automatically provided executive powers by the game. It becomes a round robin dictatorship, based on members endorsing the world assembly delegate.
    3. Foreign nations can immigrate to the nation and endorse a WA delegate. The game updates every 12 hours with new endorsements, so what this means is that invaders will swarm a region right before the update, pile on endorsements on the invasion leader, and take over the region.
    4. Now with their endorsements secured, invaders have control of the WA delegate. They then vandalize and destroy the region, changing the flag, factbook entry, kicking people, etc.
    5. However, since this costs influence, and influence is gained by being in a region over time, invaders will implant sleeper nations beforehand, who carefully wait for the perfect moment to strike and then destroy the region.
    6. The game's security council, based around world assembly delegates and members voting for user-created resolutions, can "liberate" a region. What this means is that all protections (passwords, etc) are removed and the region can be flooded by outsiders. This can be used to take regions back from invaders (since invaders will put passwords up once they're inside) or to crack open a region and invade it because they don't like it (it's a Nazi region, it's fallen afoul of some of the major game regions, etc).
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • List of Members
  • Threadmarks
    • Founder - Supreme Executive

    Hearre: @NonSequtur

    World Assembly Delegate

    Sarakart: @Cetashwayo

    Sufficiently Informed

    Curia Iudicum Regum: @ManusDomine
    Living in Sin: @Stormwhite

    Sufficient Overwatch

    Carmine Falls: @Cornuthaum
    The Most High Luciferian Archona: @HumanityDark
    Maddering Ink Islands: @Estro
    Logical Cosmos: @logiccosmic

    Member States

    Central Authority: @Crilltic
    Pseng: @Ellf
    Republic of George: @jacobplm
    The Bottom of the Ocean: @QTesseract
    Curia Iudicum Regum: @ManusDomine
    Greater Samothrace: @horngeek
    Alatheor: @ExNihilo
    Glowing Waste: @Guilop
    Lankan Confederated States: @Logos
    Regnarg: @Firebringer2077
    Noviksland: @Gavoon
    Tekkad: @Algalon
    Eretz Chofshi: @comradepitrovsky
    Neo Mirriden: @Troglodyte
    Micro-Phorelia: @ComiTurtle
    Emperatium Drakonicum: @100thlurker
    Atalar: @Attache
    Imperial Penguinland: @Arcus
    Noris: @Strunkriidiisk
    North Jinshan: @Bob the Great
    The Hesperides: @ByzantineCaesar
    Chalissia: @kokuenDG
    Caphase: @Magnive
    Carnath: @HellHound01
    Transagenda: @veteranMortal
    Ramen and Bloodfields: @Cadis
    Knights of Riddermark: @bookwyrm
    Ater Cavus: @Wootius

    Puppet Storage

    Semwei: @NonSequtur
    Joyd: @NonSequtur
    Horngeekia: @horngeek
    Eretria Eskhata: @Cetashwayo
    Tyrtyri: @ComiTurtle
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • I just founded the Free Land of Glowing Waste and have no idea how anything works. At least I already found an Uranium deposit which should help me make a lot of Glowing Trash.
     
    Guilop said:
    I just founded the Free Land of Glowing Waste and have no idea how anything works. At least I already found an Uranium deposit which should help me make a lot of Glowing Trash.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    The basic idea is that you have specific issues that your nation can choose to change its politics, but that part of it (the actual gameplay) is pretty minor. Right now you're probably going to be spammed with recruitment telegrams from various regions. Go to your settings and shut them off under telegram preferences.

    The real "meta" is emergent gameplay related to the regions (conglomerations of regions). People hold elections for positions, hold embassies with other regions, and roleplay.
     
    I used to be active on that community years ago (but it left much to be desired to say the least)

    Would you say that things have improved since that time?
     
    Sufficient Voting: A Password to Protect the Border?
  • Threadmarks
    • Bob the Great said:
    I used to be active on that community years ago (but it left much to be desired to say the least)

    Would you say that things have improved since that time?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Frankly the "base game" is boring and irrelevent. It's the kind of mobile game you get bored of in a week or two. The real meat of the enjoyment in nationstates is creating your own regional government, dealing with other regional governments, and participating in the meta. You can pretend, for our purposes, that the base game basically doesn't exist.

    ---

    Okay. So, the first thing we're going to do here is set up some basic password protections. But we don't necessarily need to.

    Why would we set up a password?

    In nationstates there is something called "raiding" or "invading". To put it short and sweet, it is possible for nations from other regions to come into yours and take it over by endorsing someone in their invasion force as the world assembly delegate. If the delegate has significant powers (check the delegate's powers here), this can ruin the region. Passwords protect against that.

    Why would we not have a password?

    One possibility is simply to not have a password. If we trust in our ability to ward off enemies and the fact that @NonSequtur is a grotesque tyrant who will destroy all invading forces spotted by his evil eye (as the region founder he can never be removed from the region and so can reverse any damage by invaders), not having a password is better because it allows our region to be more open to newcomers. That said, there are several options, and I'll lay out a few of them.

    Should the Sufficient Union have a regional password?

    [] Yes, and it should be visible to everyone who has joined the region.
    [] Yes, and it should be hidden to most members, for maximum security.
    [] Yes, and it should be posted in this forum thread.
    [] No, we should keep the borders open and free [warning: may cause Romans to invade you]

    How do I vote?

    If you are unfamiliar with how the SV voting system works, you copy and paste the option you like while filling in the brackets with an X. So if you wanted no password, it would look like this:

    [X] No, we should keep the borders open and free [warning: may cause Romans to invade you]

    Voting is open now. Because people are still making their nations and joining, anyone in this thread can vote.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Yes, and it should be posted in this forum thread.

    Probably a good compromise of security and availability.
     
    This looks... interesting. The Lankan Confederated States have been founded, and our telegram infrastructure is already being overloaded.
     
    I just made a list of things to do when you first start the game, so it should help people out.
     
    Cetashwayo said:
    Frankly the "base game" is boring and irrelevent. It's the kind of mobile game you get bored of in a week or two. The real meat of the enjoyment in nationstates is creating your own regional government, dealing with other regional governments, and participating in the meta. You can pretend, for our purposes, that the base game basically doesn't exist.

    ---

    .
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    "I attack with 100000 SuperUltraTiger tanks"

    "I counter with 200000 aircraft-carrier-battleships!"

    Escalation ad infinitum

    That was the extent of the RP back when I was there.
     
    Bob the Great said:
    "I attack with 100000 SuperUltraTiger tanks"

    "I counter with 200000 aircraft-carrier-battleships!"

    That was the extent of the RP back when I was there.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Yeah, but we're not really doing that kind of roleplay. This is going to resemble a kind of election game and political governance simulator than a bland military roleplay.
     
    Bob the Great said:
    "I attack with 100000 SuperUltraTiger tanks"

    "I counter with 200000 aircraft-carrier-battleships!"

    Escalation ad infinitum

    That was the extent of the RP back when I was there.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    There's not really a war mechanic - invasions are like, aggressive immigration strategies straight out of a Scandinavian nationalist's nightmares. Swarm the region, elect your own delegate, and then the delegate goes to town on the people who were originally in the region.
     
    Yeah. Basically, here is the course of events:

    1. The founder nation for a region, who has ultimate executive powers to remove anyone and do anything, ceases to exist after inactivity.
    2. The region's WA delegate is automatically provided executive powers by the game. It becomes a round robin dictatorship, based on members endorsing the world assembly delegate.
    3. Foreign nations can immigrate to the nation and endorse a WA delegate. The game updates every 12 hours with new endorsements, so what this means is that invaders will swarm a region right before the update, pile on endorsements on the invasion leader, and take over the region.
    4. Now with their endorsements secured, invaders have control of the WA delegate. They then vandalize and destroy the region, changing the flag, factbook entry, kicking people, etc.
    5. However, since this costs influence, and influence is gained by being in a region over time, invaders will implant sleeper nations beforehand, who carefully wait for the perfect moment to strike and then destroy the region.
    6. The game's security council, based around world assembly delegates and members voting for user-created resolutions, can "liberate" a region. What this means is that all protections (passwords, etc) are removed and the region can be flooded by outsiders. This can be used to take regions back from invaders (since invaders will put passwords up once they're inside) or to crack open a region and invade it because they don't like it (it's a Nazi region, it's fallen afoul of some of the major game regions, etc).
     
    [X] Yes, and it should be posted in this forum thread.

    Oh and I wish to purchase 256,833,000 Super Duper Ultra Extreme Catamarran MegaCarriers :p
     
    [X] Yes, and it should be posted in this forum thread.

    HORNGEEKIA DOES NOT REQUIRE CARRIERS
     
    [X] Yes, and it should be visible to everyone who has joined the region.
     
    Lol I'd move Durka Durka Bakkalah over but the King is busy putting down some pansyass liberals who wanted to stop child labor.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top