STEP One: Getting Oriented
Summary
Welcome to the East Pacific! We are one of the oldest regions out there, with 20 years of experience. We have a lot to offer, including two current tech roleplays and an accessible legislature and executive.
You are reading STEP, The East’s guide to NationStates. Each dispatch contains a summary and then more detailed explanations, including screenshots and detailed insights from our experienced players. If you’re new, we recommend reading every dispatch in order, but you can also read them independently of one another.
You have either been founded in a frontier or a feeder, two types of regions which accept new nations. If you find yourself in the East Pacific, please read this guide! If you aren’t in the East Pacific, go to The East Pacific and scroll down until you see “Move [YOUR NATION] to the East Pacific.”
You’ll be seeing a lot of recruitment Telegrams, which can get spammy and annoying pretty quickly. To disable recruitment telegrams, head to Settings > Telegrams > Preferences > Block All under “Recruitment”.
Nations receive issues once every six hours. Some issues spawn card packs, which contain cards ranked by rarity that you can retain, trade or sell.
Got questions? Telegram the Delegate.
Introduction
Hello and welcome to NationStates, and the East Pacific. You are currently reading STEP, our guide designed to get you jump started in the game. If you’re like other newbies, you’ll probably have many questions about how everything works. This guide, lovingly written by our hospitality team, is designed to answer all of your questions, and more. If you want to get a quick summary of things and then get launched into things, you will get the jist of things by reading the summaries on top of these dispatches, however our dispatches aim to be short and accessible while also going into enough detail, so we recommend you read them in full.
If you have any questions, we have multiple government members that are willing to answer them! Feel free to ask on the regional message board, or telegram our Delegate, they will be happy to answer any question you might have!
About Us: The East Pacific
The East Pacific is one of five feeder regions who share fifty percent of all new spawns, with the other fifty percent going to frontiers, regions founded by users which also accept new nations, trading guaranteed security for the privilege. If you’ve let your nation go inactive and Cease to Exist, and then logged back in, you have likely spawned in one of three restorer regions, which are designed to rehabilitate nations that have returned after a brief period of absence.
If you’re reading this, it is likely that you have been founded in the East Pacific, however, if you haven’t you are still more than welcome to join, and we would love to have you on board. To move, you should go to the East Pacific’s regional page, scroll down until you see the Move [YOUR NATION] to the East Pacific and then click on it.
The East Pacific is an active democracy, and participation can be enjoyed by all that seek to contribute in good faith. If you’re interested in joining, STEPs Three onwards will take you through applying to the East Pacific.
Telegrams
Many regions send you automated recruitment telegrams in an attempt to get you to join their region. There are a lot of these, and it can get spammy and overwhelming fast. Thankfully, NationStates has given you a way to block Telegrams you don’t want. To do this, you need to click on the settings button, which is usually found in the top bar of the page.
If you then scroll down to telegrams and go to preferences, you’ll see a grid which looks something like this:
Our recommended settings are as follows, however, you are free to choose whatever you want. “Allow Some” occasionally allows telegrams in, and “Allow Most” blocks some. If you click the “block all” for recruitment, your nation will stop receiving the large volume of recruitment telegrams. Keep in mind that your inbox can only hold twenty telegrams.
Issues and Cards
Issues are problems that you need to handle, and they impact your nations statistics and rankings abroad. Initially you get a higher rate of issues like normal, however, once you’ve played the game for a while, you only get one issue every six hours. As long as you abide by general decorum, the East Pacific does not penalise you for the way you answer issues - we’re a big community, and your type of nation reflects that.
There is no “correct” way to answer issues, only the way that you want to. Every issue changes your statistics, and some might change your national policy. If you want to, there are websites such as this one that give you the general trend in issue outcomes, however using these aren’t necessary and you should only do it if you find it fun!
Issues sometimes generate cards. Cards are minted irregularly and are a snapshot of a nation, divided into various classes of rarity, from common to legendary. Cards can be bought, sold and traded on the market.
