Attention All Issue Writers

I'm very close to reaching the end of the current batch of issues (the 24th of February 2006 to the 23rd of May 2007). As you can tell, I have some serious backlog. But after a lot of searching, a lot of pruning, and, happily, a lot of triumph (a shout-out goes to Vincon who got two of his submissions accepted) I'm nearly on to the next batch which will probably extend from the 24th of May 2007 to now.

So, listen up: if you've got a great idea for a new issue and want to submit it and have it put in the game and all that jazz then write it up and submit it as soon as possible before I get the new batch of issues. If you don't then I probably won't see it for a year to a year and a half. Possibly even two years if I'm very busy.

If you're stuck for ideas, here's a few issues I'd like to see:

Nuclear meltdown
Slavery
Issues affecting third-world countries

It's easy to notice that a lot of issues are topical for the nations of the Western world, but I'd like to see more issues submitted that relate to problems faced by African governments. Or Eastern European governments. Or Asian governments. Just more issues that lean away from being British or American-centric. Good luck everyone!

Promotions

I'm pleased to announce that Tsaraine and Ardchoille have been promoted from forum moderator to game moderator.

There's also a new issue in addition to the one I mentioned yesterday.

More issues on the way.

Issue #222 Is In The Game

Yup, another issue has come to the end of its long and weary journey through the issues queue. This particular one was originally submitted in September 2006. So yeah, I'm a little behind. It's another nice big one, but it is rather difficult to get so if you do, count yourself fortunate.

In other news, the NS2 blog has a big fat new FAQ to read. It's very exciting. I'm particularly interested about these spies and national newspapers mentioned.

Recently I decided to send my nation around the regions for a while. My first stop was Scotland. Then I decided to visit The Featured Region Followers who all visit the region randomly generated on the world page each day to congratulate them. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Still interesting though, the reasons for nations to tie themselves to others are so varied. You can find a region covering interests, hobbies, political affilations, and hundreds of other things.

The region I'm in right now is NationStates Cook Book where players can share their favourite recipes. Isn't that great?

One last thing before I finish this post. Is it only me who finds the region of Anarchy has an incredibly ironic World Factbook Entry?

Modliness Regained

I'm officially a game moderator again and have been for over a week or so. Why? Well, I've got a lot of spare time coming up. My one exam is on the 29th where I will be performing one of Satie's gymnopedies, a 15th century harpsichord piece I forget the name of, Einaudi Ludovico's La Linea Scura, and one of my own compositions. I'm confident I'll pass so no problems there.

Moving on, there's no need to worry about how this will affect my issue editing. Issue editing is still my biggest priority for NationStates and I've got a few ones I'm looking at right now. True, some of the issues in the queue are over two years old, but there's only one of me. I try my best!

I also discovered an error in one of the old issues' validity checkers which has now been fixed thanks to Pythagosaurus so people who are eligible for it can expect to see a 'new' issue at some point.

Finally, the computer that I got repaired has broken again about two weeks after. I'm going to have to get a new one which will either be a long drawn-out hassle (i.e. getting a free one from the university) or expensive (having to buy one when your average laptop costs two months' worth of rent). So I might not be on NationStates as much as I'd like.

No news on the NationStates 2 front... hopefully there will be some by the next time I post.

My New Niece

This is Johnny, my sister Rufus, and their new baby Maisie May. This is the first new bairn in the family in over a decade so everyone's quite excited about it. People will now go up to me and say 'Wow, you're an uncle!' but I've been an uncle ever since I was born, as one of my nieces is older than me (I now have three in total, and one nephew).

As for NationStates, there has been some interesting things to be read in the blog belonging to the NS2 developers. Looks like we'll have alliances instead of regions. Most intriguing.

NationStates 2 Weblog

The developers of NationStates 2 have set up a weblog to get feedback from the average NationStater, which I think is fantastic. Check out these links so you can register your thoughts with the people actually coding our much-awaited sequel.

NationStates 2 Weblog

NS2 Blog Sticky - here you can discuss NationStates 2 with other NSers (and possibly the developers).

Issue #221 Is In The Game

This is an issue I've been meaning to do for a long time, and I'm pretty pleased with the result. Enjoy!

Oh, and after a year and a half, we have a new Game Mod Olympics, courtesy of [violet].

Way, way, WAY back in the day there was a Mods Academy Awards to demonstrate what the moderators had accomplished. Sadly, this was lost with the original forums before the move to Jolt. Still, we now have eleven archived Olympics that I have tracked down and linked here for your reading pleasure.

Mod Olympics I
Mod Olympics II
Mod Olympics III
Mod Olympics IV
Mod Olympics V
Mod Olympics VI
Mod Olympics VII
Mod Olympics VIII
Mod Olympics IX
Mod Olympics X
Mod Olympics XI

Yet More Cartography

Those interested in map-generators might remember my previous posts and might like to check out these two websites shown to me by resident map-nut, Tsaraine:

http://home.comcast.net/~brons/NerdCorner/Planet.html

http://www.bin.sh/gaming/tools/world.cgi

These are both planet-generators as opposed to nation-generators, but still, I think, of interest.

For more map generators check out this site: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

NationStates 2 News!

As you can see by the forlorn look of despair in my eyes, my girlfriend attacked me with a pair of hair straighteners with horrifying results. Well, I don't really care that much but I'm glad she prefers my natural curls.

Anyway, the big news that even warranted a telegram from admin to all nations (which I don't recall seeing before), the news we've all been waiting for... NS2 is coming.

Wow, have we been waiting a long, LONG time to hear this. NationStates 2 is definitely being developed and is set for a release date of late 2008 which is amazing. Whether that deadline will be met is a different thing altogether, but we'll worry about that later. There were many nay-sayers, reckoning this sequel was never coming but we now have confirmation that it is. Check out www.nationstates2.net for the FAQ!

World Assembly Building Two Feet To Stand Upon

Well, it's been two weeks since the fall of the UN, so how is the WA coping? Pretty well, I think. We've had two passed resolutions, and the third one looks pretty certain on passing as I write this though with strong opposition. I won't be surprised if it it gets repealed soon.

Still tidying things up a bit, we've stripped the historical resolutions of their [repeal] links which meant that venturous players were trying to repeal already defunct resolutions. We also had to strip the first WA resolution about the actual foundation of the World Assembly of its repeal link because after all the trouble we went to to put that resolution on display, we're not having it undone. Besides, we can't go back to how things used to be because of legal issues.

The only remaining issue is what to do about the new proposal category, bookkeeping. Proposals of this nature have no statistical impact, but as for what they actually cover categorically... we never quite got round to discussing that. So that's what we're talking about over in the WA forum. If you have an opinion or just want to keep up-to-date on things, swing on over. Grab a lemonade.

Finally on the subject of the World Assembly, those banned from the UN may reapply to join the WA, but any cheating will be dealt with outright deletion.

In other news, Reploid Productions has put a new issue into the game, and the mods and I are getting groovy new NationStates e-mail addresses. So if you wish to send me an e-mail about NationStates, please send it to sirocco((at))nationstates.net and I'll get back to you most timeously.

In other other news, my computer is at last repaired and returned to me. Not after some kerfuffle though. After a half-hour-long walk to and back from the computer repair shop I discovered that they'd given me someone else's laptop. By some eerie coincidence another gentleman with my surname had also required his laptop repaired at the shop. So back I went.

That's all for now. My involvement in NationStates will be a bit spotty for the next month or two because of exams but during the summer I will probably be a lot more active.

The World Assembly

Egads and forsooth! The United Nations has fallen!

This was brought about by the real UN who have demanded that our use of its name and flag be removed from the site. At first we figured we could ignore it, because it worked for Saddam Hussein, but eventually we thought it best that we acquiesce to the cease and desist and begin a new organisation in its stead: the World Assembly or WA for short. There is now a new emergency resolution on how to deal with the crisis that you (as a WA member) can vote upon on on the World Assembly page.

Here's some dandy links to where it's all happening:

The official discussion thread of the emergency resolution.

A thread discussing the new world order.

NationStates Moves

This post is a bit late, I know, but since the laptop on which I would usually record my thoughts is currently in bits and pieces at a local repair shop I've been a little out of touch.

So, what's new? A lot as it happens, NationStates has been upgraded, it has reached v1.11! We now have spiffy wee flags, national happenings to complement regional happenings, a 'reports' section for even more rigorous espionage of nations needing watched, and no separate frame for the sidebar. There are RSS subscriptions and players can now resurrect their dead nations should they want to taking a small burden off the mods' shoulders and speeding up the system nicely.

NationStates' move is just about complete by now I should think and now it's just a matter of soothing out the glitches and bugs caused by it. To join the discussion, check out this thread about the upgrade: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=552128

Issue #219 Is In The Game

We have a new issue!

Otherwise, not much happening, at least that I can relay here, so I'll just finish by saying that I am a happy, happy man. My girlfriend moved in and all the possible financial hardships that could have come with it have been resolved. The future is looking good.

That is all.

Flightless Hippo Stuffed Toy

My girlfriend made me this as a present. It is officially one of the coolest things I have ever recieved.

In other news, I finally have internet access at my flat! This will (probably) mean more involvement in NationStates from me. So if things work out alright, new issues will be added to the game every now and again hereafter.

Internet, Internet, Internet

It's been a long while since I posted anything. As regular readers may know (and if you exist), I have no internet access at my flat which has prevented me from doing much in the way of NationStates-type things. What have I been up to? Trying to get a damn internet connection! And at long last my efforts have been rewarded, despite BT (the monopolising, money-grabbing bastards they are) failing to send me the papers I needed to change to a different service provider. I will have access by the beginning of March and I am so looking forward to it. No more two-mile walks to the university to check my e-mails.

On St. Valentine's day I woke up to find out that my flatmate was abruptly leaving me to pay the £130 a week rent by myself unless I could find another tenant in ten days which considering my flat's location will not be easy. On that same morning my girlfriend discovered that her degree had been buggered up by a spectacularly failed exam. All in all, not the best way to start the day off. Not that that's a good way to start any day, but I am glad it was on the 14th rather than the 15th because then it would have fallen on my girlfriend's birthday which would not have been pretty.

NationStates-wise, a few interesting things have happened that I've been aware of. The West Pacific delegate is attempting to accrue 1000 endorsements to set a new record for bloated powermongering. An effort I salute. Good luck to him/her I say.

There are plans for a new forum layout. You can have your say here.

The Most Glorious Hack put his first ever issue into the game and I am extremely proud. I'm sure he'll make a fine editor.

That's all I can remember for now, but next time I post I should have internet access. And you will get to see a most AWESOME NationStates-related photo. Watch this space...

Hello, 2008

Help! I'm trapped in a snowglobe!

It's another new year for the world, and another new year for NationStates which I assure will be experiencing wonderful new things soon. And yeah, that's about as concrete as I'm going to be for now.

I meant to do some issues during the holidays, but what with one thing and another I simply haven't had the chance. Once I FINALLY get wireless internet at my flat we'll see how things go. I plan to do a number of small things (and one big thing) in regards to the game in the near future. Ooh, it is going to be a GOOD year. I can feel it in my bones.

I have recently been introduced to the joys of MSN Messenger (which gives me an error message whenever I try to use it, so I use Pidgin instead - I've looked up every conceivable way of fixing the error but it never works. Quite irritating.). If anyone wants to talk via that network, my username is JBASiroc@hotmail.co.uk, but please don't e-mail me using that address, use siroccothemod@gmail.com instead.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Many happy returns from the Christmas hippo.

NationStates And Facebook

Having read Max Barry's latest post, it occurred to me for the first time that there would probably be a NationStates group on the site and so how could I not join up? I'm not a big fan of social networking sites as such because I'm too lazy to do much with my profile. Still, it's a good way to keep in touch.

Oh, and happy birthday NationStates! NationStates, as of four days ago, is now a hardy five years old.

In other news, I decided to edit another issue for the game on sheer whimsy and it's finished but for technical reasons I can't put it in quite yet. It should be released sometime within the week.

To conclude, here are the salient Facebooks links for those interested:

NationStates Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204519273
Max Barry Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2233898088
My Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=746592156

Still Still Alive

Another photo of my own good self.

Right now I still have no internet access in my flat but when I do I plan to do a number of things to improve NationStates (an honourable goal, I feel).

One: I will add a new feature to the game. I'm not going to say what it is right now because I'd like it to be a surprise.

Two: Add more issues.

So, don't fret! Got plans!

Still Alive

This is a picture of my flat's living room.

Life in Aberdeen is wonderful. My flat is perfect (at least in my mind) and I'm doing a university course on a subject I'm interested in.

But what's been happening with NationStates? Well, I have received news that NSTracker is back with us, and you can visit it by following this link: http://nstracker.jfsoftware.com

I've got to go now, piano practice beckons, so I think I'll leave it there.